The Beast of Heroes
by knight 6991
Summary: What if Percy was born in ancient Greece as the twin of Orion. How will this change affect his destiny.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 origins

Perseus POV

Hello my name is Perseus, Percy for short and I am a monster. You've probably never heard of me and to be honest I'm not surprised that's just the way my life's always been. My mother was Sally the heir and princess of Sparta, or at least she was till she had a set of twins with Poseidon god of the sea. Once me and my brother were born my grandfather king Fufu disinherited her, yes that is his real name so it's no surprise that he chose to go by his nickname the Eviscerator not the best nickname but still better than King Fufu.

My uncle Soluc went on to become king and my Mother got to raise me and my brother Orion. My mother was both kind and beautiful to the point that even after me and my brother were born suitors still came from across the land to ask for her hand. We spent the next 16 years of our lives just training, I never had much skill with a bow but I was very good with a blade. Orion in addition with being the oldest was skilled with both a blade and a bow, that and his natural public speaking skills made him into an icon for city I was just his brother. Kings from all across Greece knew his name, the one time I met Minos the king of Crete he referred to me solely Orion's little brother.

To be honest I didn't really mind being past up for my older brother, it actually got me out of the paperwork side of being a prince since everyone wanted Orion's stamp of approval. Besides my mother never played favorites so I didn't care…too much. On my sixteenth birthday I went to my uncle and asked if he would allow me to leave Sparta and travel across Greece to learn about the world, basicly study abroad. Those were my stated intentions anyway, I really just wanted to go somewhere where I wasn't Orion's _wittle_ brother, I was Percy.

Sadly It seemed fate was not on my side because my uncle thought it was a great idea, so great infact he decided Orion should go with me, ya I pretty much was ready to bang my head against the wall at this point. The next day Me and Orion set out on our journey "come on brother this was your idea" Orion said. "ya but I wanted to do this on my own" I said to myself. "what was that". "Just a little tired thats all" I said trying for a smile. We walked for the whole day and finally end at the beach about 30 miles east of Athens. We set up camp and took a few minutes to relax in the cool sea water before going to bed.

Time Skip 1 year

"That's enough Orion we need to get back to the inn" I said. "Come on one more" Orion slurred. "No! you've had enough wine already, we need to head out tomorrow morning, besides that wine isn't cheap". "No I order to let me go." I sighed and gave him a swift blow to the back of the head. This has become a common occurrence, ever since we left home Orion acquired a taste for expensive wine. And sadly his morals have been slipping, without going to in depth we've been kicked out of six towns and I wouldn't be surprised if he had few children scattered about. I just hope none of this makes it back to my Mother or she might have a heart attack.

The next day I had to drag a very hungover Orion out of town at dawn because couldn't we afford to pay off his debt at the Tavern (ye old bar). At the end of the day I ended up out by the ocean with a very angry Orion "how dare you drag me out here I am a prince of…". "We're both princes so get over yourself, besides you've spent most of the last year ruining the royal family's name". "Why You!". "My lords! My lords!". "Who is that" Orion shouted. "over here My lords" I looked into the water to see a small shark floating there. "Please My lords my friend is in danger please help him". "get out of my sight you stupid beast" Orion shouted throwing a rock at him. "My lords" he said sadly. "don't worry I'll go with you" I told him "Orion we'll be having a nice little chat when I get back" and with that I jumped into the water.

"So what has your friend" I asked. "it's a Iku-Turso" he said "Me and my friends TK and Mik were playing out side the city limits when the Iku-Turso attacked, part the cliff collapsed and buried Mik, TK went back to the city to get help and I followed your sent as a son of Poseidon". I was about to ask what a Iku-Turso was but that question answered for me when reached the cliff. The Iku-Turso was huge, this thing had to be at least 40 feet long with a crocodile like head, tentacles on the bottom of it's jaw, claws on each arm, and a big tail in the back.

"go get your friend I'll deal with the monster" I said. I used the water to propel me behind the beast thinking it would be easier to sneak up on it since it was focused on trying to dig out its food. Big mistake, I got hit by it's tail and flung into the side of the cliff while my sword was wrenched from my hand 'Thats gonna hurt in the morning'. The cliff shook as the Iku-Turso roared in pain and started clawing at it's tail or more specifically my sword that was stuck in its tail.

I decided to use this distraction to help my new shark friend dig out his buddy, thankfully the Iku-Turso had cleared away most of the big rocks so it only took a few minutes to dig out Mik. Mik as it turns out was a merman, as soon as his tail was free we set out towards the city. I chanced a look behind us which was a good thing because the Iku-Turso had given up trying to take out my sword and it's clawed hand was flying towards us.

Third Person POV

Percy shoved the two kids out of the way as best he could then placed himself behind them using his body as a shield. As the Iku-Turso's claw slashed his back, Percy opened his mouth as if screaming but no sound came out. The Iku-Turso let out a rumble of satisfaction as it attempted to eat its prey. Percy couldn't feel his legs but put it out of his mind as he willed the water to face him towards the beast. Percy had no idea how he was going to defeat this thing, the Iku-Turso open its massive jaws to eat him but a blue-ish green light erupted on its side. The Iku-Turso howled in pain and disintegrated, Percy was a little unsure if he had imagined that or not but he promptly blacked out from the pain in his back.

Two mermen came and took the unconscious Percy back to a beautiful woman with black hair and crab like claws for horns. "Your highness we found this boy floating unconscious near the Iku-Turso corpse" The soldier said. "What is he doing here" Amphitrite said in disgust, She never really cared for her husbands mortal children. To her they were just a reminder of her husband's unfaithfulness but unlike Hera she never could bring herself to harm them, in her opinion the life of an innocent was always precious no matter its origin.

"I brought him" a small shark said "When Mik got trapped TK went to get you and I asked him and his brother for help". The shark explained his meeting with Percy and Orion, and Percy's battle with the Iku-Turso. "One came and one stayed" Amphitrite said to herself, but in her mind she made a mental note to watch him. He threw himself in front of a bunch of kids to save them knowing he would probably die, that kind of selflessness was rare. She took a closer look at his injury and although it had healed thanks to the sea, it was clear his spine and had been severed. He would live but he would never walk again, putting her hand on his shoulder Amphitrite fixed his back as thanks for protecting the children.


	2. The Hunt

Chapter 2 The hunt

Percy POV

When I woke up I noticed that I was being carried by two mermen "Are the kids okay" I asked. The two mermen started making a hissing sound that I think was laughing "The kids are fine thanks to you" the one on my left said. When we reached the shore I said my goodbyes to them and slowly walked out of the water and noticed I was a good ways down the shore from my camp. An arrow embedded itself in the sand in front of me, I looked up to see a girl "Don't move" she said. The girl had long black hair and obsidian eyes "whoa hold up" Orion shouted.

Zoe POV

"Why should I?" I asked turning to the _boy._ The hunt was transporting a prisoner back to Athens for the king to decided his fate when we stumbled upon Orion, lady Artemis had heard tales of his archery skills and decided to make camp so the hunt could rest and she could talk with him. "He's my younger brother Perseus" Orion said "he left to help a shark just before you arrived". "Whatever I'm going to change" Perseus said tramping past us to his tent. 'why you' I thought, Orion gave a sigh and went back to the main camp. I was still angry with Percy's lack of respect so I went after him, when I reached his tent I could hear him grunting in pain every few seconds. Curious I pulled back the flap to Percy's tent and saw him pulling off is shirt, what really caught my attention was the rip in the back and the angry red scar on his back.

"Stupid Iku-Turso I actually liked that shirt" Percy said to himself. 'He fought an Iku-Turso!' I thought in shock. "I need to apologize to that girl, I was really rude" Percy said as he applied to some cream to his back. 'Need some help" I asked. Percy nodded hesitantly "um about earlier I'm..". "You don't need to apologize" I said. "how did you..". "I overheard you talking to yourself." I said "you really shouldn't do that, people will start thinking you're crazy". "Were you eavesdropping on me." he asked. "A little, I was actually come going to tell you off for being so rude". "Exactly how long were you standing there" he asked.

"Long enough to hear you killed a Iku-Turso" I said. "I didn't kill it" he said "the mermen did I just fought it". "That's still pretty impressive" I said "should give you something to brag about". "I didn't fight it for bragging rights" he said sharply "I did it to save those kids". "You're a strange one alright, most boy's would jump at the chance to have something like that" I said as I finished applying the cream.

"I'm not most guys now am I" Percy said slipping on a new shirt "thank you for your help but I better go pay my respects to Artemis before she thinks I'm being rude". "How'd did you know she was here" I asked. "I know enough about the hunters of Artemis to recognize one when I see one." he said. "Also please don't tell anyone one about the Iku-Turso". "Why not" I asked completely confused by the boy before me. "My brother is very proud of his archery skills and to be recognized by the goddess of Archery is a dream come true, I'd hate to take that away from him".

Percy in the end needed some help getting up because of the pain in his back which didn't really surprise me. I've only seen a Iku-Turso once before and I never want to see it again, they are the dragons of the sea second only to the Leviathans. Their armor is near impenetrable to all but the gods, the tentacles under their jaws shock like electric eels. Their claws are coated in a slimy poison that causes no physical harm but instead focuses on the victims nerves causing debilitating agony and can take months to wear off. The fact that Percy was even able to move was astounding.

Percy gave a quick bow to Artemis and apologized for not greeting her sooner. I'm not sure if the others noticed it but I saw Percy pause as he saw Artemis and when he spoke to her his words were calm and soft. Percy walked away from the rest of the camp and sat down with his back to a tree stump. "What'cha doing over here" I asked sitting across from him. "Giving your hunters their space, I understand that you're not particularly fond of boys. Following that line of thought why are you so talkative, I would think that you'd be trying to ignore me right now". "Normally I would but you're kind of an odd ball, I expected you to be some snot nose, egotistical, prideful prince who can barely lift a sword".

Percy managed a chuckle "Don't make me laugh it hurts" he said. "So what brings the hunt out this way. I would have thought you'd stick to the forests up north" he said. "We're transporting a prisoner back to Athens". "What did the guy do to warrant the attention of the gods". "He slaughtered an entire village men, women, and children" I said "as for a reason he's chosen to keep that to himself".

Third Person POV

Percy and Zoe talked for the rest of the night till Artemis challenged Orion to an archery contest. Orion lost of course and he took his loss in stride saying "it's only to be expected when dealing with the beautiful goddess of Archery". 3 days later they arrived in Athens and dropped the man off who was then publicly executed. The biggest surprise however was when Artemis asked Percy and Orion if they would like to travel with the hunt both of which agreed.

Percy and Zoe proved to be fast friends and tended to spar often, many of the hunters thought the two of them were getting too close but after a few months it became clear they shared more of a sibling relationship. Over the next two years despite both Orion and Percy's attempts to keep things civil between them it became clear that they didn't see eye to eye on certain things resulting in some bad blood. One such topic was first brought to the attention of the hunters because a man named Creed.

Flashback (gonna be a long one)

third person POV

"Gotta love that view" Percy said as the hunt finally made it out of the mountain pass. The entire country of Syracuse (AN: On the Island of Sicily) lay spread out almost a thousand feet below us "pff I've seen better" Zoe said teasingly. Percy rolled his eyes "Just because you're older than me and have been traveling longer doesn't mean you need to keep reminding me you've seen better" he said quietly. "What was that about me being old" Zoe growled. "What? I just said you were older than me that could mean just a year or two" Percy defended.

"Come on you two, I want to reach the village before night fall" Artemis shouted from further down the path trailing behind the hunt which currently had Orion at the head. Percy Stared after Artemis for moment before shaking his head, he had only taken three steps before Zoe caught his arm. "Percy can I speak to you for a moment" She asked. "Um sure" I said. "Do you care for lady Artemis?". I nodded "Of Course I do she's my friend" Percy said adamantly. "That's not what I mean and you know it" Zoe said flatly "do you love her?". Percy sighed having known that she would figure it out sooner or later "yes I do". "Then why don't you tell her" Zoe said raising her voice ever so slightly.

"Because A. I'm pretty sure she's in love with Orion and B. before we came to the hunt Orion was stuck in a self destructive spiral and being around Artemis is about the only thing holding him together at this point. If being together is what makes them happy I can't take that away from them no matter what my personal feeling are. Wait, why are you pushing for me to be with her. I thought you hunters were against relationships." Percy said. Zoe didn't respond and started heading down the path.

The hunt ended up reaching the village the following morning much to Artemis' displeasure. According to Zoe the village had been quite jovial the last time they had been there, but now the place seemed almost dead. The people hid behind closed doors and slammed the shutters. "What in the world happened here" Zoe asked no one in particular. "We've been going through some hard times as of late" an older guy said, he leaned heavily on a cane and was adorned in expensive attire and several pieces of expensive jewelry. On either side of the man was a soldier "There have been quite a few crop failures in the last few years and it's taken a toll" he said softly.

"Where are my manners the names Monic I'm the lord of this region, who might you be" He asked smiling and holding out his hand. Orion who was in front shook it smiling back, he couldn't help it Monic just held that friendly air that you couldn't resist "My name is Orion prince of Sparta, this gorgeous woman here is Artemis goddess of the hunt, and this is the hunt". "Did he just lump me in with the hunt" Percy said to Zoe. "I told you to cut your hair" Zoe said "only women should have hair past their shoulders".

Monic's eyes widened at Orion and Artemis' names and wisely invited us over to his estate for dinner that night. Artemis dismissed them to go look around till dinner and Zoe ended up dragging Percy out to the apple orchard at the edge of the town. "What it is Zoe" Percy asked shaking the arm Zoe had all but wrenched out of its socket. "Didn't you feel like something was off back at the village" She said giving me **that** look, the look that just begged you to agree with her. "Ya it was way too quiet, there wasn't a single child and I only saw one girl. Even if there had been several crop failures there should have been a number of kids 7 and older. If the village had begun to starve we should have seen a decrease in the men not the women and children."

"That was a surprisingly well thought out assessment" Zoe said. "Why does everybody say that" Percy said "yes I'm not one for academics but I do understand people". "So are you going to keep whining or are we going to start snooping". Percy hung his head in defeat "lets getting going" he said in mock exasperation.

Artemis POV

I looked up from our meal and checked the door, Percy and Zoe never showed up for dinner and it was starting to bother me "don't worry" Denelle said "they probably just lost track of time sight seeing". I nodded and went back to my meal but I just had this pit in my stomach.


	3. A Prince's Pride

Chapter 3 a prince's pride

(Flashback continues)

Zoe POV

We had checked the village and Monic's estate/fortress with nothing to show for it. Percy as he had done many times before surprised me with how quietly he moved, if he could actually use a bow he'd completely out class Orion as a warrior. Orion liked to think he was the stronger of the two but personally I think they were equals. Orion was more well rounded in his skills but Percy took a few things like swordsmanship, stealth, trap making and excelled to amazing heights. Orion used his mind Percy used his gut "I smell deer" he said, 'every little bit of it' I thought.

I let Percy follow his nose all the way through the forest and out the other side. We were three or four miles from Monic's home and I'm sure dinner would be starting soon Hades that's what's probably got Percy smelling things. That boy ate like a Satyr just downing everything, and he really loved it when Artemis cooked not that it was some kind of love struck kid thing. Artemis' cooking skills are so good she should have it as one of her domains.

I was about to call it and decide this whole escapade was just me and Percy being paranoid when we happened upon a campsite near a lake where sure enough they were cooking a deer over the fire 'how the heck did he smell that three miles away' I thought.

"What are you doing here" a man said. "Me and my sister got lost you mind telling us which way to the nearest town" Percy said. The man grunted "you and your sister stumbled into the wrong camp". A few other men stepped out of the shadows "Tell the Creed we found two more slaves". The farthest man nodded and ran off, with him gone there were maybe six men if my guess was right. This would be easy even if me or Percy were alone "We surrender" Percy said. "What are you doing" I whispered. "Just play along" he whispered back putting up his hands.

The slave traders took our weapons and chained us up with the others "So what's your big plan" I said after they left. "Information gathering" he said turning to the other prisoners "so who are you". A man with long snow white hair tried to sit up but fell. "Here let me help you sir" a kid said sliding the mans arm over his shoulder. "Thank you Con." The man said "My name is Monic I'm the lord of this region". "Then who the guy back at the estate" Percy asked.

"His name is Creed" Monic said "We thought he was a humble trader and our friend. As we had crop failures he gave us food, not much just enough to get by. This year our crops failed much worse usual and Creed said he couldn't just give us the food for free this time. He pulled out a contract and explained to us it was just a promise of payment. After generously just giving us food over the past eight years the other men in the village and I didn't even bother to read it before we signed. We held a small party that night and the following morning Creed bound us in chains. He explain was that the payment we promised him by signing the document was slaves, most of our population in fact plus everything I had. Then he went on to tells us he caused our crop failures. Blocking the river before it left the mountain to mimic a drought, setting wild boars loose in our fields, and even starting a fire during a thunderstorm while we were dealing with one the storm had already caused. We tried to rebel but Creed killed our best warriors, Saul and Soul, twin sons of Ares right in front of us".

"I think we've heard enough" Percy said taking off his shackles. "How did you do that" I asked, Percy nodded. "When we were ten Orion decided it was fun to lock me in the empty cells of the palace dungeon. After a week I just taught myself how to pick a lock." He said as he started helping me with mine. "I'm a little rusty though" he said as he fumbled with the lock. "The slaves are escaping" the sentry shouted.

"Okay 'Archimedes' how are we supposed to fight without our weapons" I said. "Hello son of Poseidon remember" with a wave of his hand the water seemingly lept from the lake of it's own accord and washed Creed's men back into the lake. A few seconds later a rather angry naiad came storming out of the lake "who washed that trash into my lake!" She shouted.

"I did" Percy said bowing deeply "their slave traders but that's no excuse for polluting your lake". The Naiad by this point was blushing fiercely, I had to chuckle "I-it's fine, I'm Elex by the way" she stuttered. "Thank you for your understanding Elex but I must ask one more thing off you. Will you please keep them here till Lady Artemis arrives". "Will you be coming with her" Elex asked. "Yes" Percy said confidently. "Then I will" she said returning to her lake.

"Smooth Percy" I teased. "What do you me" he asked. 'Oh boy' I thought 'he's won her heart in three seconds and he doesn't even know it'. Percy finished removing our chains, gathered our weapons, and we headed back to the village.

Artemis POV

'Okay something has to be wrong' I thought. There was no way Percy would miss dinner, the man's like a bottomless pit, how he stays so fit is beyond me. A tall man opened the main door and walked over to Monic "sir I have some news about the cattle on the other side of the forest" he said. "Good news I hope" Monic replied warningly. The man nodded "we've recovered two more a male and a female". "Cattle? Seriously that's what you're calling them" Someone shouted from the door. I turned to see Percy standing there supporting an old white haired man (AN: I know the time is off from when Percy should have arrived but it works better this way). "What are you doing!" Monic shouted "That man should be in chains!". "Oh shut up Creed, I know what you've done, just come clean now and you might receive mercy from the king" Percy said. "What's going on" I shouted. "That's not Monic" Percy said pointing at our host "his name is Creed and he's enslaved most of the town". "You sold yourselves to me of your own free will." Creed shouted back. "You destroyed our crops and tried to enslave this young man and his sister" The real Monic said hoarsely, it was only then I noticed the blood badge on his side.

"Where's the contract?" I asked "Proof of ownership, something?". "I've got the contract right here" Zoe said. I took the contract and read it over "Percy, Zoe I want you to tell everything". After twenty long minutes, Creed and his men were tied up, and my temper was boiling but before I could even say anything Orion vaulted over the table. "You're dead" Orion cried as he drew his sword. "NO!" Percy shouted catching his arm before he could behead Creed. Percy and Orion struggled for a bit till Percy wretched Orion's sword out of his hand. "Why are you defending him!". "We can't just kill him" Percy shouted. "We're princes" Orion argued.

"We are NOT princes here" Percy said "and even in Sparta he would at least get a trial. Have you forgotten how we first met the hunt, they were taking a cold blooded child killer to Athens for trial. Even the gods don't take killing as lightly as you are now."

"Fine! Let Artemis decide." Orion said. I cleared my throat somewhat put off by Orion's rage and readiness to kill, it actually kinda scared me. "Since you destroyed their crops repeatedly for eight years I'm deeming this contract null and void" I said tossing it into the fire, I was going to free the slaves anyway but this would give me a legal reason. "Now as for attempting to enslave both my best friend and her brother-". "Go a head kill me" Creed said. "No" I said " to a man like you traveling about Greece, buying and selling people, death would be a mercy. You'll be spending the rest of you life imprisoned on Olympus." I said teleporting Creed to his cell.

We did the best we could for the village especially Tania, our daughter of Demeter and one of the most powerful demigods I've ever met, who grew a season's worth of crops in a matter of day's. Apollo even dropped by to check on the villagers upon my request. He didn't really seem to like Orion, though I can't understand why. Just before Apollo left he dropped by my tent "Hey Arty" he said teasingly. "What have I told you about calling me Arty." I said. Apollo held up his hand in defeat before turning serious "We need to talk about Orion…"

Flashback end


	4. Broken Bonds

Chapter 4 Broken bonds

Percy POV

"I still can't believe you killed that deer with a sword" Zoe said. "Hey when you got skills you got skills" I said puffing out my chest. "You're just lucky the deer ran in our direction" Zoe said. "Why are you like this" I asked hanging my head in defeat. "Because someone has to stop you from getting a big head" Zoe laughed.

"I thought that's why you made me carry the deer all by myself." I said pointing to the rather small deer on my shoulders. "No that's because you killed it." Zoe said firmly. I looked ahead to see we were already in camp but something was wrong. The atmosphere wasn't right, it was too dark and the hunters were nowhere to be found, I started heading towards the center of camp when I saw something that made me drop the deer.

Orion was lying face down in the dirt with two arrows arrows in his back. I ran for Artemis' tent seeking an answer and found most if not all of the hunters huddled in front of it around one girl wrapped in a blanket. "Wha...what happened?" I asked. "Orion tried to rape her while we were all out hunting" One of the older hunters whispered. It was so faint I almost missed malice behind those words.

In every hunter I looked at save Zoe who was still trying to process this information stared at me like I was some rabid animal that might attack at any moment. "I need to talk to Artemis" I said walking past the hunters and into her tent.

Artemis was lying on her bed crying "Artemis" I said softly. "What are you doing here!" She shouted. "I wanted to apologize for Orion, I know it does nothing to repair the damage-". "You want to apologize for him!" Artemis shouted getting off her bed "You think that's all it will take after betraying my trust like that!". "No I-" Thwack. My cheek stung as I realized that she had just slapped me.

"No you are a Monster! Just like your brother. Get out of my tent and get out my camp, just leave!" She shouted. I was crushed by what I heard yet I found myself bowing to her "As you wish milady". I silently walked out of her tent, to my own and began gathering and began gathering my things "What are you doing" Zoe asked. "Lady Artemis has asked me to leave" I said "and who can blame her after what I brought on her family".

"You can't blame yourself for that" Zoe said getting on her knees beside me. "How can I not" I replied "I knew the kind of person he was becoming but I said nothing when he began to improve. Regardless of how I felt I should have warned her."

"Where will go?" Zoe asked. "Home I guess, it will be nice to see my mother again to see her smile. Tell Artemis to do with Orion's body as she wishes as far as I'm concerned, he is no brother of mine".

With my things in my pack I stood up to leave but Zoe caught my arm "Percy, take this with you" She said holding out a hair pin. "Is this?". "Yes" She said "It's my sword Riptide, Artemis retrieved it for me after Heracles died, and I want you, my brother to have it. Please stay safe out there without me knuckle head". I pulled Zoe into a hug "I love you Brother". "I love you to sister good bye".

-Time Skip three weeks-

The walk home was long and arduous but it was well worth it. The smell of the citrus trees and flowers made me feel better than I had in the last few weeks. The guard at the main door almost didn't recognize me I guess three years can do that to a man. He even escorted me to My Uncle's throne room "Nephew" my Soluc boomed "You've finally returned". "Good to see you again to Uncle" I said. "What happened to your hair, it looks like a mop" he said. "I tried cutting it with my sword a few times but it never looked good so I just let it grow". "Where is your brother" Soluc asked, if he had said that to me even a month earlier it would've made my day. "About that" I sighed "Where's my mother, she should be the first to know."

This time it was Soluc's turn to sigh sadly "Percy follow me". He took me down to my mother's room, she was laying on her bed far paler than she should be with the family healer tending to her "She got sick almost a year after you and Orion left" he said "I've sent a message to every Kingdom in greece and the high priest or priestess of every god, there's nothing we can do, I've been told she has another day at best."

I walked over to her and dropped to my knees by her bed "hey mom." I said. Mother tiredly looked over at me and smiled "Percy" she said "you're here". "yes mom I'm here" I choked out as I took her hand. "Where your brother Orion". "He's with the Hunters of Artemis, he actually managed to capture her heart".

At this point my mother started crying "That's great" she said "how 'bout you, find any one special". "Yes I found a sister Zoe nightshade, she's Artemis' lieutenant but no I haven't found someone I love yet". "Don't worry it'll happen, any girl would be lucky to marry you, I...love you...two...sooo much" her arm went limp in my hand, she had passed away.

"I love too mom, I love you too" I sobbed. Soluc let me sit there for a while before putting his hand on my shoulder "Percy we need to let the priest prepare her to enter Hades realm". "I know" I said standing up. We walked for awhile no real destination in mind "So where's Orion" Soluc asked. "He's dead." I said flatly "he tried to rape a hunter and Artemis killed him".

Soluc punched me across the face "how dare you say something like that. Orion would never do something so vile." he roared. "I'm going to give you one chance to take back what you said and say it was just the grief from you mother passing. Do you have any idea what would happen if our citizens found out. Orion was a hero to all of them, it would cause a panic, people would flee our lands thinking the gods' wrath would come down upon us." he said. I looked him dead in the eye "What you tell the people is your choice but I will not lie to them." I said.

"Then Leave" my uncle said flatly "if you're so intent on destroying your own brother legacy then we have no place for you here. You and all you descendants are forever banished from our lands FOREVER!". I nodded in understanding and went to my room, I had most of my things packed already, I was just grabbed a few things of sentimental value like a necklace my mother had given to me. It was a small sun made out of Jade with a peacock feather etched into the metal hung from a simple string, it was a family heirloom from my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandfather Kota, I was supposed to give this to the woman I married. (AN consider this like an engagement ring. They were actually used for these purposes but I might be off on the when by 400 years. Incomplete records.)

As I left for the main gate I could feel the hateful glares from the guards and townsfolk guess Uncle Soluc decided to add some rumors of his own so no one would trust me. It wasn't long before the people began to throw food at me. By The time I reach the gate they had even added rocks to the mix. By the end of the day I found myself by the sea once again watching the waves roll in, for the first time in my life I had no idea what I should do. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see a beautiful woman in her late 30's with black hair. "Hello there ma'am" I said bowing slightly.


	5. New Purpose

Chapter 5 New purpose

Percy POV

"What a polite young man" she said tilting her head slightly. It was then that I noticed the two crab claws extending from her head. Calmly as I could I moved my hand down to the hilt of my sword. "There will be no need for that" the lady said making my sword disappear with a wave of her hand. "Who are you" I asked. "I am Amphitrite Queen" she said. "Oh" I said lamely "so I guess you're here to finish me off, well go a head". Amphitrite gave me a look of pity "I'm not here to kill you, I'm here to give you a purpose, the surface world may have abandoned you but you are born of the sea and it needs defending".

"So you want me to join your army" I said calmly. "Yes" Amphitrite replied "I won't lie to you, you will not be receiving any special treatment as my husband's son. Your privileges and rights will be the same as every one of the sea's citizens and soldiers". "I understand and I'm ready to go" I said. Amphitrite gave me a small smile and flashed us under the sea.

We appeared just outside of a gigantic city easily six times that of Sparta. "There you are Queen Amphitrite" a Merman said, he had a short white beard and muscles the size of my body "I started to worry when you didn't return on time". "There's nothing to worry about Bill it just took longer than I thought to find Perseus" Amphitrite said "now I must be leaving, Perseus is in your care."

"Follow me boy." Bill said heading back to the city "I will be training you once a week as I do not currently have time to give you all my attention. If any one asks about where your from tell them you grew up in the forgotten seas, we get a lot of raw talent from out there, your mother has passed on and you never knew your father."

'Should be easy' I thought 'not much different from the truth'. Bill paused to let his orders sink in "Never tell anyone you are a son of Poseidon, I say this for your own good, soldiers will flock to a son of the sea seeking fame and fortune. And lastly remember your place I know the man in charge of the barracks you'll be staying at. Follow his orders and you will be fine, disobey and he will break you both body and mind". Bill led me to a low building made of coral "This is where you'll be staying, the rest of the new recruits won't be arriving for another hour so make yourself at home".

Zoe POV

"Lady Artemis?" I asked poking my head in her tent "You feeling alright?". "I don't know Zoe" she said "where's Percy I need to talk to him". "He's gone" I said looking down. "What? Why? When?" Artemis asked in a panicked voice. "You don't remember? You sent him away, you called him a monster, and you said he was as bad as Orion." I reminded her, I hurt just to lay it out like that but I didn't see how sugar coating it would help.

Artemis open and closed her mouth like a fish "I-I was angry I didn't mean it!" she cried. My heart went out to her "do you know where he went" Artemis asked. "He said he was going home to see his mother." I said "I gave him Riptide before he left."

"You did?" She asked in surprise. I nodded "He's the brother I always wanted but never had". "We'll get him back I promise" Artemis declared "even if i have to get down on my knees and beg for his forgiveness". We shared a smile and I stood up to leave when she asked "what happen to Orion's body". "Percy disowned him and left it to us. We let Shara (Orion's victim) burn it the night he left". 'More like made her after she beat his body into an unrecognizable state' I thought.

-three weeks later-

The city hadn't changed all that much from the last time I was here. The barracks were still noisy, the outskirts of the town smelled like mold, and most of the soldiers were pigs. We went straight for lady Artemis' shrine, she wasn't as big in Sparta as Ares which is part of why she hated this place. The temple and shrines were near the center of the city surrounded by the palace walls, the last line of defense, as a sign of respect (AN: yes I'm making stuff up at this point don't judge me).

"Lady Artemis" a young priestess said falling to her knees "It's an honor to have you here". The girl was maybe 10 and based on the girl's garbs and attitude I'd guess she was from a poor family. She probably chose the life of a priestess in the hopes she could keep her family in favor of the gods and no longer be burden. "You may rise" Artemis sighed in annoyance, she never really cared for the constant bowing.

"If I may ask where is Orion" The priestess inquired. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a number of hunters flinch "Orion is dead" Artemis said calmly. "Oh so Perseus wasn't lying about that" The priestess said to herself. "What do you mean" I asked. The girl fidgeted "It's just something I overheard from the guards". Artemis, who was in her 18 year old form, crouched down to her level "What's your name" Artemis asked sweetly. "Natasha" The girl said shyly. Artemis put her hands on Natasha's shoulders "Natasha I need you to tell me what you heard" Artemis asked.

Natasha nodded "There's a ledge in Ares' temple that hangs just above the guards break room, I sometimes sit up there and listen to their stories. A couple weeks ago I heard them talking about prince- I mean Perseus and how he was banished-". 'Percy was banished!' I panicked. "-his mother had been sick for a while and was expected to die within the next few days. So when he returned he was rushed to her side, from what I heard Perseus' mother literally died in his arms."

I wanted to cry right then and there but I needed to find Percy first, there'd be plenty of time to mourn after. "After that the king asked about Orion and Perseus told him that Orion died for an unspeakable crime. The king got angry and hit Perseus then banished him for spreading lies about Orion. But the official reason for his banishment was an act of treason". Artemis was literally shaking in rage at this point "Natasha I want you to bring me the High Priestess" the girl nodded and ran off to Athena's temple. A second later a woman in her late 30's came rushing out of Athena's temple "Lady Artemis-" I just tuned her out as she went to the usual lengthy greeting. "I need you to take me to the king" Artemis said as she finished. "Yes of course" the Priestess said "right this way". She lead us through the palace and into the throne room where Soluc was apparently hold a meet with the peasants.

As the priestess walked over to the king I noticed a beautiful raven haired servant girl around sixteen scrubbing the floors "King Soluc" his attention. "What is it Tina." he said tiredly as the peasants left. "Lady Artemis and her hunters are here." Tina replied. Soluc straightened up in his throne "To what do I owe the honor?" he asked obviously flustered. "I'm here about what you did to your nephew Percy!" Artemis howled, in the corner of my eye I noticed the raven haired girl froze for a moment before slowly going back to her work.

"You know full well that Percy is not one to lie so why did you banish him." Artemis seethed. "If my citizens knew what Orion did it would cause a panic. And since he refused to shut up about it I banished as a traitor." Soluc said evenly. Artemis' left eye twitched like it always did when she was angry "Well I've got news for you" she howled "you're going to tell your entire kingdom the truth and just what you did, you're going to send messages to every kingdom and Province in Greece. And if you don't I will wipe you and your kingdom of the face of the earth."

The king was speechless as Artemis' form began to flicker "I'll give you a week to make the announcement" she said before storming out of the room. The servant girl picked up her cleaning supplies and followed us out of the room. "Lady Artemis may I speak with you." She asked and I had to admire her boldness to request a conversation with Artemis. Never the less Artemis nodded her form still flickering "I was hoping you knew where Percy was?" The girl asked.

"Regretfully I do not." Artemis stated "Why do you ask?". I could see the girls courage from earlier begin to fade "Because he's my cousin" She said timidly. Artemis' mouth dropped "Why is a princess scrubbing the floors" I asked in surprise. The girl before me looked down "I was born during a rough time in my parent's marriage. Soluc isn't actually my father, my mother had an affair and Soluc never forgave her for it. Since he couldn't do much without the kingdom finding out, he waited till I was six then had me put to work as a servant, I'm not actually even a princess. Out of all my cousins Percy and his mother were the only ones who treated me like family".

Artemis' form stopped flickering "You could come with us." She offered. "But what about Soluc he'd be furious if I left". "I doubt even he's dumb even to attack a goddess' handmaiden" I said. The girl gave us a big smile "Ok sure, what do I need to do?" she asked. "Well first how about you tell us your name" Artemis said. "It's Thalia" she said joyfully.

Please review


	6. Inheritance

-Inheritance-

Third person POV

Percy had been in the 'wonderful care' of the Atlantean army for five months now and he was doing pretty well. Percy feared his lack of a tail would have him found out but it turns out all mermen have the ability to turn their tail into a pair of legs if they want. At the moment however he was having his private lesson with Bill whom he had learned was fairly famous down here, kinda like the Heracules of the sea.

"Too slow" Bill said pairing Percy's thrust "Perseus you must read into your opponent's attacks not blindly swing your swords". Percy smiled slightly "Maybe I'm just trying to distract you" he said using his momentum to shove Bill's massive sword away and slam the hilt of Riptide into his jaw. "You've improved quite a bit" Bill said rubbing his jaw. "Thank you." Percy said "So what's next?".

Bill had to smile at Percy's boundless energy, his friend Chiron would have loved his easy going attitude. What pleased Bill the most though was Percy's emotional recovery, when Percy first arrived he truly believed himself to be a monster, the only thing that keeping going was his desire to change that and change he did. Percy now stood a few inches taller, his shoulders were broader, and he had a fairly chiseled and lean look having lost what little baby fat he had left.

"Your new training is going to be a bit different" Bill said "You've mastered your style of using two swords but now you'll begin training under a new teacher. He'll help you master the power you inherited from your father. We'll meet you here tomorrow after you're duty at the barracks are finished."

"I'll still have lessons with you from time to time but from now on your main focus your power. So far it has laid dormant inside you but we can't risk it getting out uncontrolled especially since the sea will amplify it. Also after tomorrow you'll be joining your fellow recruits for sword practice instead of meeting with me".

Percy POV

'Why would I be given a new teacher so soon' I thought 'clearly my swordsmanship could use a lot of work. Even after five months using two swords it still felt stiff and unnatural. As for mastering my power, is that Amphitrite's way of making sure I don't embarrass the royal family'.

I shook my head, now wasn't the time for that. My entire year of recruits was scheduled to join a routine search of a deep rift in the sea floor. I was taken out of my thoughts as I was thrown to the ground "Hey Dan, hey Virra" I sighed standing up "why can't you two ever say hello like normal people."

Dan and Virra Agafya were fraternal twins heirs to a very prestigious noble family. Normally heirs were given private teachers so they didn't have to mingle with us 'commoners'. However due to their tendency to feed the poor, the Agafya family had lost much of their wealth and respect among the other nobles.

"What's on your mind Perce" Dan asked "You seem a little spaced out there". "It's nothing" I said. "Something up with your private lessons?" Virra asked. "How do you two know about those?" I asked. "Because we're friends and your a horrible liar" Dan said "but I don't know why you're hiding it man. If I got picked for private lessons I'd be screaming it from the top of our barracks."

"Is it really that big?" I asked. "Absolutely!" Virra said "King Poseidon has a standing offer to his elite soldiers that if they take a new recruit under their wing they with be exempt from menial tasks like cleaning and inventory, and they get paid for it. Since their own reputation is at stake they tend to chose the most talented ones". "So who did you get Perce" Dan asked. "I'm actually in between teachers right now. My first teacher decided I've become good enough in my swordsmanship that I can move on and learn to control my power." I said.

"You're a mystic!" Virra exclaimed "What kind of spells do you know-". "I'm not a mystic." I said flatly. "Then you have godly blood?" She asked. "Yes" I said trying to think what I should really say "I'm the descendant of a sea god and no one really knows the extent of what I could do, not even me. This is really just to determine what I can do if anything at all".

Dan and Virra thankfully decided to drop the subject and instead jump to my possible girlfriend they had seen me with a month ago. Said girl happened to be Amphitrite, the queen of the sea herself, how they didn't know who she was being nobles themselves is beyond me.

-Time skip-

We all stood in the training grounds just outside the main barracks used for the new recruits. The first hour had been spent just dividing us up into the small platoons which would be led by a few season'd soldiers. "Ok listen up tadpoles" I did my best not to snort at what the sea viewed as a maggot "I'm going to make this simple-". "Is this where the recruits are supposed to meet for the mission." a boy said swimming over to us, he wore golden armor studded with jewels. "You were supposed to be here over an hour ago" the sergeant shouted.

"I'm sorry sir" The boy said bowing "my father **Gethen Aglæca** needed me to take of a few things". The sergeant swallowed thickly and told, Ubel as he called himself, that he would be joining us. Beside me Dan growled "You know him?" I asked. "About 3 years ago Gethen Aglæca killed the wife of Peleus king Myrmidons in cold blood. The was a big debate in king Poseidon's court on how to punish him, long story short they decided he had to provide Peleus with a new wife. Since he could only speak for his daughter it was expected to be her." He seethed

"However two generations back Gethen's grandfather saved Sulvok Agafya's life, my great grandfather, Sulvok offered the Aglæca family anything as a thankyou. The Aglæca's turned it down, they did this to try and end the feud between our family's. Gethen years later tried to call in that favor so he wouldn't have to give up a daughter". Dan took a shaky breath "We turned him down and he took us to the people's court, the court was meant to settle small issue's that didn't require Poseidon's attention, the court ruled in Gethen's favor. So my older sister Thetis was forced to marry Peleus".

Ubel swam in front of Dan "Back of the line" he growled. Ubel turned around and I finally got a good look at him he had his hair cut short and an overwhelming air of confidence/arrogance "In case you didn't here I'm the heir to the Aglæca family. Us nobles are meant to lead you commoners exist to obey us".

The Sargent finished his speech and we began our somewhat march along the seafloor, we did this to avoid sharks who would be hunting. The rift as it turned out was made of many deep valleys. This may have just been a training exercise but I could understand why they brought such an excessive amount of people for it, you could hide a small army here.

Each platoon was given a valley to search and search we did. We checked the ground for signs of digging, check to see if the wildlife had been disturbed, and even to some water sample to check for gas leaks (Carbon dioxide or Methane). Me, Dan, and Ubel were scouting the outer edge when we came across a cave, Ubel let out a low whistle "Now that's a big cave must be at least 40 yards wide and 70 tall."

"Well it wasn't here last year when the survey was done." Dan said reading the report. Ubel straightened up "Well lets go sear-". "Shh" I said. "Did you just shush me." Ubel said. "Yes now shut up" I said "can't you hear that". "Yeah it faint like a voice." Dan said. 'come on guys we should leave' it said. 'it's just a cave scaredy fish it's not like there is gonna be an attack this close the city' another replied. "It's a bunch of kids." I deadpanned "Let's go get them". "Why go after them" Ubel said. "Hey kids get out here!" he shouted. "Are you stupid?" Dan said "what if-". An earsplitting roar cut through the water shaking the cave "-there was something in it" Dan finished. I willed the water to push me in the cave after the kids I grabbed the first one I saw and Dan grabbed the other one.

As we exited I look at the boy in my arms "Mik?". The kid looked up at me "Percy" he cheered. "What are you doing here? Actually worry about that later where's Ubel?" I asked turning to Dan. Before he could answer there was a sound of scales scraping against stone, I looked back back at the cave and my blood went cold, it was another Iku-Turso. It was slightly smaller than the last one I met but not by much "Die you monster!" Ubel shouted. I found him driving fairly fast from above the cave "Ubel don't we can't kill that thing!" I shouted.

Ubel's spear bounced harmlessly off the Iku-Turso's scales. The sea dragon spun in place slapped Ubel into the sea floor with it's claws. "Dan take care of the kids!" I ran over to Ubel and swung Riptide at the Iku-Turso's incoming claw. The second it's claw met my blade I felt powerful like some dam just broke and the power was washing over me. Riptide cut through the Iku-Turso's hand easily before sending a blade of energy that cut it's head in half.

"Go Percy!" Mik cheered as Ubel picked himself up. "What happened here" one of commanding officers shouted. "Percy picked a fight with an Iku-Turso" Ubel said. Dan looked furious "What it was you that-". "Silence!" the captain bellowed "I told you three not to take any unnecessary risks and you did. And why are there civilians here!"

Hours later after the training exercise had been completed I was called into the captain's office "Have a seat" he said. "yes sir" I replied. "I've read all three of your reports and the children's stories. My final decision is that the three of you blatantly disregard the rules and all common sense." He said "Normally your team would be whipped for such an act but as two of it's members are nobles I've been forced to leave their fates to their fathers. You however are not a noble, therefore your fate is in my hands, now as you did protect two civilians and kill the Iku-Turso I've convinced my superiors to drop the number of lashes from 40 to 20."

I nodded in understanding and followed him out the door, then stripped of my shirt and tied to a post, the captain stuck a piece of leather in my mouth "Bite this as hard as you can it will help". When the first blow struck I nearly screamed, my only thought was to keep a thin layer of air over my back to hide my heritage, by the 20th I was barely keeping conscious. I didn't even realized it was over till one of the medics had untied me and began dressing my wound. "You did well" He said "most newcomers start begging for it to end after the 10th stroke". He walked out of the room and someone else entered "Percy" a voice I recognized as Bill said I couldn't see him as I was face down "I came as soon as I heard". "You did well from what I understand" a second voice added. "Whose that?"

"This is TJ your new teacher" Bill said. "I want to ask you about your sword, Riptide, where did you get it." He said. "It was a gift from someone I considered my sister, Zoe Nightshade." I said horsely. "I see that explains quite a bit." TJ said "You should thank her, this sword is the only reason you're alive. Are you aware of Riptide's original owner?"

"It was her mother's." I said. "Yes Pelone the sea goddess of waves. When she faded she gifted her symbol of power to her daughter Zoe granting her immortality and a great deal of power. You see when a god fades their symbol of power leave's with them unless the gift it to someone." TJ said "With it the owner gains a certain degree of control over the god or goddess' domain. If the new owner is an immortal they become a god, if they are a nature spirit they become immortal, and if they are a demigod their power goes through the roof. Also should they gift the symbol away they lose the power they gained from it. In giving this to you your _sister_ gave up her own immortality you should be more careful with your life. You're lucky the sword accepted you as it's owner in time."

Artemis POV

"You have got to be kidding me!" I shrieked. Over the last five months I've followed every lead I could find about Percy. The strange sea activity outside Thebes, the Naiad in Pylos who were dating a demigod with power of the sea who was in fact Aeas a river god. I even tracked down the tree nymphs who were infatuated with him for any hints. Now the prince of Ephyra who had learned about my search had lied so I would come to his kingdom and he could ask for my hand in marriage.

"No I will not marry you. In fact I curse you never to sire an till you're 60 should you even live that long." I said flashing Zoe and I back to camp. "Okay list-" I started only to see the tents shredded and the mess tent covered in burns but my hunters were just laughing "What the Hades happened here". "We got attacked" Phoebe laughed while shaking a overjoyed if shy Thalia "We got attacked by 9 or so cyclops's in the middle of dinner. The fight went fine till Thalia got scared and blasted one with lightning, also your tent got flattened."

"My tent got what!" I screamed. "Actually not important you shot lightning" I asked Thalia, she nodded "I'm going to Olympus for the summer solstice meeting and this better be cleaned up when I get back."

Two hours later

Father pinched his nose "Okay so we've got the back up plan for when Kronos try's to over though us taken care of. The one's who supported him punished and the one's who supported us rewarded is there anything else we need to talk about."

"I have a few things" I said looking at my uncle Poseidon "First I was hope you knew where Percy was?". "No" He said flatly "I haven't been able to find him in months and when I do I won't permit you to see him after what you did". 'This just makes it all the more important I find him first' I thought "Okay second Father I have a new hunter named Thalia, she's the daughter of Ona the Spartan Queen, is she your daughter". All the eye's in the throne room were on my father "Ona, Ona, Ona" he mumbled to himself "maybe?".

Please review


	7. Lessons learned

-Chapter 7 Lessons learned-

TJ POV

"Your concentration is still lacking and your water creation have no sustenance." I said "Your energy blasts are fairly strong but that is more do to your connection to Riptide's previous owner and is rather ineffective against a large force since you don't have the energy reserves to keep it up."

"So in other words I've made no progress" Percy laughed from where he lay on the ground. "You think this is funny! Three weeks and you haven't improved at all". "I'm doing the best I can." Percy said. "That I don't doubt" I said preparing to flash back to the palace"The rest of the day is yours to do with as you please, I have things I need to attend to."

Back at the palace Amphitrite was waiting for me "So how did today's lesson go?" She asked. "If anything his powers are getting weaker." I said flatly. "His emotional state is completely out of balance and it's showing in his powers. His sword Riptide is the only thing that has any stability in it because he still feels a connection to his sister." I said. "So what do you plan to do to help him." She inquired. "I don't know" I said rubbing my head "my whole life I've been trained to read people but when I look at him I get nothing. I mean I'm just like him we're both prince's and we're both sons of Poseidon you'd think I'd be able to get some kind of read on him."

My mother put her hands on my shoulders "You're leaving out something very important, as a prince you were taught to show confidence and strength even when you don't feel that way, Percy is using every ounce of strength he has to keep up that facade and he has either lost or been betrayed by those he trusted most. He's lost, he's trying to stand but he can't remember how, and he needs someone to lean on. I asked you to train him because you two are so similar, you both put the people ahead of your own glory, you're both humble, and you want to believe in people." She said. "If you need a way to connect with him try what you'd use for yourself." She said. "Yes mother" I said heading off to my room. "Don't forget your going with your father to the Olympian council in four hours."

Percy POV

'Where the Hades is he?' I thought. TJ was never late in fact I've been chastised for being late. Finally he flashed in and he's carrying a gigantic pack "Mother make you clean out your closet?" I asked. TJ rolled his eyes. "Go back to the barracks and pack your things we're going on trip for a week or two. And don't worry about your S.O. I've already sent him a message about this." TJ said.

"So where are we going?" I asked after a while. "The crystal reef north of Greece." TJ said "A lot of people think it was Thalassa garden because the coral itself looks like living gems and only those with a sea god's symbol of power can enter". We talked a little bit here and there but it was stiff and unemotional.

"Here we are" TJ said coming to a stop at the bottom of a small ridge. "Where's the reef?" I asked. "It's on the other side of the ridge. This is just the door." TJ said, he stuck his hand out and this little golden door appeared 30 feet to our left. "I can never seem to remember where the door is, sometimes I think it moves." TJ Joked. I chucked along with him simple because this was the first time he had shown any real emotion.

"Do as I do" TJ said inserting his spear like a key and turning it. The door opened just long enough for him to walk through and closed in my face. "Use your sword Percy." TJ said, and I did. Once over the ridge I couldn't help but gawk, the coral reef was amazing, it just glittered like fresh jewels yet it still had that alive feel. This wasn't rocks made to look alive it was a living being that looked like gems.

"So this is where we're going to train?" I asked. "Not at the moment lets have lunch first." TJ said. We sat down right there and ate "What is this?" I asked. "It's a type of sea eel from down south." TJ said "Poseidon likes it because it taste just like beef from the surface world". "This place really looks amazing." I said. TJ nodded "My parents had their honeymoon here and they used to bring me here all the time when things were quieter. The Reef was smaller back then and I loved to hid in it like it was my secret base." TJ laughed "My Father was content to just let me do as I pleased but my mother kept trying to get me out saying she didn't want me to break anything. In my early years I had bad habit of breaking things."

"I was the same way." I said. "Growing up I put a lot of holes in my bedroom walls". "Tell me about your life before you came to the sea." TJ said "Your happiest memories and leave nothing out". I didn't really see the harm so I just told him, my mother playing with me in the palace gardens as a child, and hunting with Artemis and Zoe. After I finished this glowing water kinda pulled from around my head and formed a ball in TJ's hand. "What is that?". "Follow me" TJ aid ignoring me. TJ lead me to a small sandy beach just above the water but still a good ways from the reef. well Beach might not be entirely correct, it was more of a small Island maybe a hundred feet in diameter.

"There's an law in Thalassa's garden that states no one can fight anywhere but on this island and there is no killing aloud. Anyone who tries is painfully removed before they can succeed. Now we can get down to training." TJ said pulling out an hour glass "This little ball of glowing water represents every happy memory you just told me about. If you don't manage to land one solid hit with your water abilities within the hour I will destroy the ball and your memories with it."

I went to draw my swords and TJ made them disappear "I said water abilities not physical skill". "You want water!" I shouted "Then take this I shouted sending a large wave of water at him". TJ waved his hand and the water returned to the sea "Pitiful" he said. I threw another bigger wave at him with the same result "From how you spoke about your mother and sister I was expecting more of a fight. I wonder how you mother would feel to learn that the day you spent with her at the festival in Ares honor just didn't mean that much to you." TJ said. I willed more water out of the sea and formed it into 3 spear like shapes that I fired at him. TJ dodged to the side "You call that an attack. Your brother Orion-". "HE'S NOT MY BROTHER!" I shouted, every emotion I had been holding just rushed out of me.

I wasn't even thinking anymore I was just hurling water at him in random shapes. Before I even realized I was running my fist was inches from TJ's face, time seemed to slow as the blow connected, my fist was coated in a thick layer of ice and I was sure a tooth flew out of his mouth. "Training session over." TJ said rubbing his jaw "Wow that was a good punch."

TJ walked away, picked up his tooth, reinserted it in his mouth and drank some nectar "Real good job." he said looking at the hour glass "It didn't even take you a full ten minutes to hit me, I had my money on 45". "I don't give a crap about that what about my memories!" I screamed. TJ's face broke into a mischievous smile "Well to be honest your memories were never in danger, I don't even have the power to take them. The glowing water is just a parlor trick all sea gods can do that."

"Then what was all this for, why put me through that?". "Two reasons first you needed to vent. Trying to keep all those emotions inside is only going to hurt you and since you weren't willing to talk to me or Amphitrite I had to find an alternative method. Second look at what you just did." TJ said spreading his arms wide at the last part. I looked at the ground, it was littered with small craters and trenches in the previously smooth ground. "A mere chance that you might lose your happiest memories and you did all this. Granted the last part was more fueled by your rage at Orion. The point is just because your friends and family aren't here right now doesn't mean they're gone. That's why we have memories, those precious moments with them is what keeps them alive, you came here to find a purpose but you already had one. You mother had drilled it into you since the day you were born **Protect Others**." TJ said.

"Right now you have to choices, you can wallow in your misfortune and live as just another soldier in the atlantean army or you can listen to your mother and be the man that she, Zoe, Bill, Amphitrite, and I know you can be. If you want to find out what that is meet me here tomorrow, if not Athens is that way." TJ said jumping back into the sea. I took a long swim through the reefs and as much as I wanted to just walk away I knew I wouldn't be able to face my mother when I died or Zoe and Artemis if I met them again. The next morning I was back on the island bright and early "Good answer." TJ said.


	8. Mother and Brother

Chapter 8

Percy POV

"Dan can't you just be civil!" Virra screeched. "That man was nothing more than a squid and you know it." Dan said calmly. "It's not like he was trying to court me we were just talking!" Virra screamed. "He had more on his mind then talking." Dan growled. "How could you possibly kn-". "Could both of you shut up". I yelled from my cot "Dan back off a little, Virra your brother is just trying to look out for you calm down. Now I've got training in a few hours and I'd like to get some sleep".

"Um Percy you supposed to meet your trainer in five minutes." Dan said. "Of course" I groaned getting out of bed and getting dressed. When I reached the training site I found Amphitrite waiting for me and I had to smile over the last year she had become like a second mother to me. "Hello Percy" She said giving me a hug. "How have you been?" she asked. "I've been doing ok Dan and Virra started arguing over whether or not she was talk to a guy or dating him. By the way what are you doing here I thought we were meeting later." I asked.

"I want... to... well you see… ugh! I had a whole speech planned dang it, but now I can't remember any of it! Percy over the last year you've grown into an amazing man and leader. I love you like my own son and if you willing I would like to adopt you as my own." She said. "What seriously? Of course yes I'd love to but would Triton be okay with it. I mean he's never met me and I don't want to cause trouble between the two of you." I said.

"Oh quit your whining and just get it over with." TJ said striding towards us. "Hey TJ you knew about this?" I asked. "Of course I did mom made sure to ask if I was ok with her adopting you. That's about when she asked me to be your teacher." he said "So are we gonna do this or what?".

"Yes of course, but I'm going to have questions." I said. Amphitrite no Mom nodded "I Amphitrite Queen of the sea, wife to Poseidon, and goddess of sea creatures adopt Percy, son of poseidon as my own son granting him all rights, privileges, and powers as such". Across my body I felt pain but in a good way like thousands of thorns being removed, the feeling was so intense I almost missed the wave like blue lines all over my body like a glowing tattoo. "What is this?" I asked.

"It's an apparent gift from mother to all of her children." TJ said as similar lines appeared on his skin. "Think of it as a magnifying glass for your powers, the exact pattern is unique to each person." Triton said "Also don't call me TJ unless it's just us and are parents". "Why?". Amphitrite chuckled "It's because, despite the fact I had picked out the name long before I even met your father, everyone thought he was named after Poseidon's Trident. TJ stands for Trident Junior and it was started by a extremely annoying Noble boy. Triton picked it as a cover because everyone knows he hates it and wouldn't expect him to go by it." she said.

Triton clapped his hands "Okay now that we got that out of the way we can get back to training". "Hold your horses" Mom said. "Percy you're gonna have to stay in the barracks for another week but then we're moving you into the palace. Also there's a tournament in a week that you'll be competing in. It's so the elite soldiers can show off the students they took on this past year and you'll be entering as Bill's. Ohh I can't wait to see the look on your father's face." She said. "why's that." I asked. "Because I haven't told him that you're here yet, he's going to be so surprised." She said "Well I need to get going, there's an important meeting I need to get too.".

-Time skip-

I flopped on my cot unable to move with all the pain coursing through my body, yet I'd never felt happier. I had a home, I had a family again. "Hey Percy you back yet." Dan shouted from the hallway. "No I'm still out training!" I yelled back. "oh okay." he said walking away "What wait a minute." I snorted at my friend's stupidity. Dan was very kind and usually very bright but he did have his moments.

"Haha very funny." Dan grumbled as he opened the door. "Well I'm glad you thought so too" I said staring up at the ceiling. "So what did you want?". "I've figured it was about time we had our daily meeting." Dan said. "In other words you've got something good." I said rolling onto my side. Our little 'meetings' were originally a way to beat our own boredom in which we would tell each other the coolest or funniest thing to happen all day and see whose is better. "Okay so what do you have?" I asked

-Flashback (Dan's POV)-

About an hour after Percy left I was summoned to meet Poseidon and needless to say I was freaking out. I kept going over everything I had done in the past year trying to figure out if I had angered him some how. After I arrived at the palace the guards led me to a small room with a window showing the east side garden. The room itself was fairly bare with no sorts of decoration on the walls and the only furniture in the room was a desk and three chairs. I took a seat in one of the chair and waited. A few more minutes later the door open again and Ubel Aglæca walked in "What are you doing here." he sneered. "I was summoned here same as you." I said flatly.

"Why would the king want to speak to a piece of scum like you unless… Poseidon has finally agreed you Agafya are unworthy to be nobles. Oh I do hope I'm right it would be such a wonderful if unintentional birthday gift for me." Ubel said. I glared furiously at him, just because the head of the Aglæca family is part of Poseidon's court they seem to think they can do or say whatever they wish.

"I assure you that is not the reason I called you here." A man bearing a remarkably similar resemblance to Percy said. "Lord Poseidon" Ubel said bowing deeply and I rushed to follow his example. Poseidon nodded in return and walked to the chair on the far side of the desk followed by a familiar looking woman. Ubel took the last unclaimed on our side and looked at king Poseidon expectantly, I however felt it was improper to leave the woman standing and offered her my chair "Why thank you young man" she said gratefully taking a seat.

Poseidon looked at a few of the seaweed papers on his desk before turning his attention to us "Thank you for coming on such short notice but as the two of you will be replacing you fathers as the head of your respective families in just a few days I felt this couldn't wait. Ubel as you may know will replace his father as a member of my court at that time. Normally I would be congratulating you but recently I have heard several disturbing rumors." Poseidon said leaning back in his chair.

"These rumors include using your family's influence over the people's court to undermine my laws and punishments I've bestowed for crimes committed by the Aglæca's. Also endangering civilians and taxing the people in your territories beyond what you are allowed. And lastly conspiring with our enemies to overthrow me." The king said evenly and I stepped away from Ubel in shock and he himself paled considerably.

"Now I'm not one to take stories such as these at face value but I couldn't very well let them go unchecked so I had them investigated and I found but the last one to be true." He said calmly, all around us the room started shaking and I swear the water was getting warmer very quickly. "Because of this I've decided not to allow you, Ubel, into my court and will in fact be stripping you and your family of all powers and titles short of your status as a noble till such a time as the Aglæcas have earned it." Despite every word Poseidon spoke being said in a calm voice I couldn't stop myself from shaking in fear as he looked to me.

"Calm down Dan I'm not here to punished you." the sea god chuckled "I called you here to inform you that I've decided the Agafya family should take control of the Aglæca lands for the time being. Also I've looked over both the reports and recommendations of your teachers and decided you shall also replace Gethen Aglæca as one of my advisors. That won't be a problem will it?" He asked. I was so shocked by the news I had a difficult time finding my voice "N-no S-sir no problem at all!" I squeaked. "Good then you both are dismissed." Poseidon said.

-End Flashback-

Percy POV

"Dude that's awesome" I said trying and failing to sit up. "I don't know if mine thing is better but it's still pretty big." I said "I found my dad's family and really hit it off with my step mom and half brother and I'll finally get to meet my father in about a week.". "I'd safely call that tie." Dan said slapping my shoulder. "So who's your dad?" Dan asked. "You'll have to wait till after I meet him." I said.

Chapter 9 -The Tournament-

Chapter 10 - A new threat-


	9. The Tournament

Chapter 9 -The Tournament-

Percy POV

I shifted uncomfortably in place, Triton ran me ragged for the first four days then let me rest for the last three. I've been training for most of my life and my skills have never been better so why can't I shake this feeling. Oh ya because I'm about to compete in front of my father and his entire kingdom for the first time.

Bill placed his hand on my shoulder "Be calm Percy you'll be fine". At the end of the tunnel our drill sergeant waved us forward, I flipped my hood over my head, if all went well my father wouldn't even know I was here till the final round. Triton had given me a special atlantean steel sword the day before. Apparently the green metal was so rare that the royal family were the only one's to use it. Pontus had been the first to wield a weapon of that kind. A tradition which his daughter tethys and son in law Oceanus kept and passed on when when Oceanus allowed my father to take over as ruler of the sea after marrying his daughter.

As we entered into the main arena I threw back my shoulders and straightened up. This tournament was meant to serve as a display of our military might, not to mention the number of wagers that are placed, this was one of the biggest events of the year(Think super bowl big). As the roar of the crowd died My father stood up "Citizen's of the sea I'm proud to announce the beginning of the 375th annual torrent of the sea's tournament. This year we have twelve entries; Gine Eron, representing the Mystic Merlin; Ubel Aglæca, representing his teacher Shonan the savoir of Zork; Coal, representing the spear user Orlay; Lerin, representing both Aphros and Bythos; Erza Elra, representing Glaucus inventor of the Gladius; Perseus of the Oruk, representing Iona shield of Emera; Kort, representing Weissmuller ;Axle, representing Strider ; Foruk, representing Gardon; Picove, representing Dillon; Helvask Elra, representing Qiunce; and Perseus from the forgotten seas, representing my general Bill." (AN: I only gave last names to the noble families)

The crowd roared at the names of their heroes exceptionally Bill's. "To the victor of this year's tournament I have specially made Leviathan scale armor made by my nephew Hephaestus after the Titan war. Also I am honored to say my brother Hades is with us today to witness these proud warrior. My brother as always didn't just come for the show, he came with a challenge. 17 years ago his wife gave birth to a son they named Nico. If the winner of the torrent of the sea's tournament can defeat Nico he has offered not only riches but a full year of training with the best heroes that have fallen!". The crowd and most of the contestants cheered at the declaration. "Without further adieu let the competition begin!".

Gine Eron went first Against Kort, although he fought bravely Kort couldn't keep up with Gine's numerous ice constructs. Erza Elra was pitted against her brother Helvask, Helvask was clearly the more powerful of the two but Erza was more agile using her speed to overwhelm his defenses with her knives.

Poseidon POV

"Looks like you lost big on that one father." Triton said. "I would think after all this time you'd have learned to look past the obvious brother." Hades said."I thought I did all of Qiunce's reports stated Helvask's massive strength and natural talent with skill to match." I said. "Well I guess you can't win them all." Nico joked. "Angel you should be more respectful to your uncle." Persephone scolded, behind me Triton snickered. "Mom I asked to stop calling me that." Nico whined, I glanced at Hades and though I saw a ghost of a smile. Ever since Nico had been born my brothers mood and marriage had improved greatly, his wife and really loved him, and he became bearable for the rest of us.

I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts I completely missed Foruk's victory over Coal. Next up was Axle against Perseus of Oruk, I raised an eyebrow when I saw his weapons was a set of bladed throwing disks. Due to the density of water projectile weapons were generally useless, this should prove an interesting match. Perseus ran forward almost completely disregarding Axle as a threat, how foolish, Axle wouldn't be here if he wasn't strong. Axle lept over Perseus' first strike his disks coming perilously close to Perseus' neck.

Perseus took a step back now taking his opponent seriously. Axle however just looked amused and threw his disks and drew a third. Perseus swam under both blades and stabbed at his shoulder. Axle smiled and caught Perseus blade with his own "You pay more attention to your surroundings" Axle said. (AN: Poseidon could hear that because sound travels farther and faster in water.)

The first of Axle's thrown blades returned to him and cut deeply into his tail and sword arm just above the elbow. Axle caught both of his blades effortlessly and held the third to Perseus' neck "I surrender" he said. "You fought well." Axle said removing his blade and helped him over to the medics. Ubel Aglæca was up next against Lerin. Although as king I was supposed to remain impassive in these tournaments, aside from a few bets of course, but I really wanted to see Ubel pounded into the sea floor. Sadly my wish went unfulfilled as Lerin was easily defeated with a single strike to the head by the butt of Ubel's spear. Finally we arrived at the last match of Perseus verses Picove, I leaned over to my adviser who also happened to be the booky for this tournament "What do we know about these two." I asked.

The man flipped through a number papers before pulling out three "Well for Picove we plenty of info. Above average skills with a sword and his skills as a tactician seem to be his main strengths but over all he seems to the underdog in this tournament. Now for Perseus we have almost nothing aside from a single report Bill sent in. 'boy's highly skill with his dual blades style and is very unpredictable.' that's about all we have. Your wife however was confident enough in his skills to place a sizeable bet on him as the victor of this whole thing." he said.

I glanced over at the paper to see this bet "400 Drachma!" I half shouted turning to my wife. "You barely let me have 100 for the whole tournament and you spent 400 on one guy?" I asked in a whisper, I'm not dumb enough to yell at my wife. "Considering how much you've lost over the years 400 is pocket change." she said. I couldn't believe my shy Amphitrite actually just said that, I hung my head and returned to the match.

Perseus drew his swords and waited for Picove to make the first move. For a long while the two simple stared at each other the tension building till Picove charged. Perseus merely sided stepped Picove and kicked his side. Picove was able to recover just fine and took a second run at Perseus, this time the battle was more intense, Picove was barely able to keep up with Perseus' rapid strikes and he didn't even see the kick heading this way. "This new kid fights like a surface worlder." Hades said. He was right most merfolk didn't really use their feet in combat. With the sea allowing them to travel in every direction and attack from every angle using their tails to build up speed and power made more sense.

Picove was knocked into the far wall and Perseus buried one of his swords next to his head making the point very clear 'Dead'. Picove merely nodded and dropped his sword in surrender. "Dude has skills" Nico said "I swear that seems familiar though I can't quite put my finger on it." Hades nodded in agreement. The next round was Ubel verse Erza Elra, the battle was short but fierce. Erza attacked in a whirlwind of blade while Ubel hid behind his shield trying survive long enough to find an opening. He found that opening when Erza went for the deciding blow too soon leaving herself unprotected from Ubels spear. Once Erza was unconscious Ubel raised his spear in victory earning a large roar of cheers from the crowd, his pride was great, but had numerous cut both shallow and deep all over his body.

As Axle and Gine Eron enter the colosseum floor you could feel the change from their earlier matches. Their confidence was more controlled and their body language show much respect for eachother skill. This time Gine started creating her ice constructs the second the match started probably hoping to overwhelm Axle. Axle threw his first two bladed disks and drew two more, the spell Axle used to recall his disks was simple, yet it allowed him to fight as if he had four arms. And so the battle went for over an hour neither side giving an inch. Realizing she could not outlast her opponent in battle of stamina Gine readied a spear and swam towards her opponent.

Axle easily maneuvered around her attack landing a powerful blow to the back of her head only to be hit by one of her constructs. Gine creations dissipated temporarily clouding the water in the arena. When the dust settled both were unconscious "My lord the verdict is up to you." my counselor said. I nodded and stood up "Both of these warriors have fought bravely and have every right to hold their head high. I feel they have more than proven their skills and should rest lest their injuries cause themselves permanent damage."


	10. A New Threat

Chapter 10 - A new threat-

Percy POV

I took a deep breath as I did my best to analyze Foruk, he held a massive stone club easily the size of my own body and I knew from his last battle that he could swing it with effortlessly. Foruk himself was three times the size of a normal man. My only hope was if I could dodge him long enough to get in a clean strike. "Come and get it little man." Foruk taunted, I smirked slightly. The one time I ever met him before he had said something similar before insulting my strength, guess now's time to set the record straight.

"You got it." I said moving full sprint. Foruk's first swing went high, missing my head by mere centimeters, I ducked and ran straight into his personal space. Foruk responded by leaning back and swinging his club back. I gritted my teeth there was no way for me to land a finishing blow without be taken out myself. Instead I landed two quick cuts, one on the back of his left hand, the other on his tail. Neither cuts were deep by any means but both would be painful and hopefully slow him down.

Foruk growled and took another swing at me, I had wanted to end this quick but I doubted it now. I went in again dropping low so I would be difficult to hit and scoring another light cut on his tail. Foruk growled again this time louder and it gave me an idea, I might not be stronger than him, but I've got a better temper than he does. Over and over I dived in scoring tiny hits and glancing blows.

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of veiw my plan succeeded. Foruk was furious and began swinging his club harder and harder till finally he over committed to a heavy swing. I stepped back into his personal space using my spartan sword to knock the club from his hands and put riptide to his neck. "Dead." I said flatly, Foruk sobered up quickly and nodded putting his hands up in surrender.

I was given a few minutes to rest before my match with Ubel and I wasn't really sure how it would play out. Our base styles were the same, get in and get out, but our methods were different. I arguably had the better offensive capability, but he had the reach and defense, as far as experience goes I have no idea.

Poseidon POV

I eyed the two contestants curiously as they reentered the arena. Ubel was pretty straightforward what you see is what you got Arrogant, Prideful, and Talented. Perseus on the other hand was a complete mystery. He had skill that was sure and there were these pauses in his attacks like he was trying to gauge how much power to use.

"That's it!" Nico said "Perseus uses a more Spartan style style of fight, you know get right in your face till you back down. But he's added something else to make it more flexible."

"A fine assessment son." Hades said as the match began.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a long time peasant." Ubel said "Until you showed up my whole life was set. I'd take over after my father in only a few days after my birthday and join Poseidon's court. Then you came and killed that Iku-Turso with ease, my father was furious! I almost got disinherited for being shown up by a no name stranger from outside the kingdom!"

I raised my eyebrow at Ubel's declaration, very few people can ever kill an Iku-Turso, this boy is either very skill or very lucky. Probably a little of both. Down in the arena Ubel had begun his attack while still continuing his rant. "...and after all was said and done Lord Poseidon took my birthright from me. So I started searching out Poseidon's 'source' and oddly enough just about everyone I interrogated describe someone who looked just like you. Some even gave me your name!" He shouted.

Perseus lazily dodged a thrust from Ubel and threw him to the ground. "I have no problem admitting I looked into the rumors I even passed on what I found to my teachers." Perseus said sheathing his swords. "You dare mock me." Ubel growled "I am a noble from the Aglæca family how can you even think to win against me."

Perseus merely leaned back as Ubel thrust his spear "I sheathed my swords because I don't need them." he said "You're too consumed by rage unless you calm down you just going to hurt yourself. Besides I don't think you understand what power is, it doesn't come from being a noble. No matter how many fancy titles or awards your given underneath it all it's just you. Those things don't give you strength there are meant to represent strength you already have. Take the Olympian council for example, each and everyone of them started from nothing, no titles or domains just their wits and their own two hands. Now look where they are rulers of the world, they understand that power come from within, that strength comes from wanting to protect those close to you. To be honest I think that's why they're still standing, no matter how childish or severe their arguments are they can move past them because at the end of the day they are still a family. You care for nothing but yourself and that is why you will lose"

"The boy has understanding beyond his years." Hades whispered as Perseus trapped Ubel against the wall at the point of his own spear.

"The match is over." I said. Ubel looked up at me in protest "If you can't see you've lost it might be best if you went back to basics."

"Well Mom looks like you just cleaned up big time." Triton said "Made what 6-7 thousand on that bet?"

"8,000 actually but I still don't think I've made back everything your father has lost." Amphitrite said.

Nico stood up and began walking down to the arena "Do your best angel." Persephone called. Nico merely groaned and hung his head.

Percy POV

Admittedly I chuckled when I heard Nico's nickname "Mother's, always finding a way to be both embarrassing and endearing at the same time." I laughed

"You have no idea." Nico said "So do you need a rest before we start?".

I shook my head "I should be just fine if a little tired, I'm not sure how well I'll do against a god though." I said.

Nico laughed "Well if it's any consolation my father told me I couldn't enter my true form."

"As a matter of fact it is." I said.

Both Nico and I bowed to each other and began, I made a shallow but hard swing at his left arm to probe his defenses. He easily caught my blade with his shield and responded with a similar strike. I smiled under my cloak, my dear cousin it seems has had some serious training. Every blow I threw at him met and came back just as hard.

"Well you've got skills but let's see how you handle this?" Nico said. Shadows started flowing from the side of the Arena. I slashed through the first wave of shadows and charged at Nico using the currents to help me move. Nico was caught so off guard by my speed he couldn't build a defense fast enough. Half an inch from landing what would have been a finishing blow he disappeared into his own shadow. "Whoa that was close." He said "This water makes it a bit harder to move."

"Well since we seem to be showing off right now I think I can help with that." I said, placing my palms flat against each other I slowly pulled them apart until my arms were outstretched and my palms were facing out. The water mimicked my movement till the whole area inside the stands was inside a giant air bubble.

"So you're a mystic too huh?" Nico asked.

"Not really." I said "This is just something my brother taught me."

"If I couldn't sense your own mortality I'd really doubt you were a mortal, you have more power than I've ever seen in a mortal, dead or alive." Nico said sending another wave of shadows.

"I guess I'm just special that way." I said sending out tendrils of water to bat his shadows back. Nico shadow traveled behind me and slashed at my back. I spun catching his blade with my own and kicked at his abdomen. He side stepped my kick effortlessly and caught the sword my biological mother gave me with his shield and flipped it out of my hand. I lept back from Nico and barely caught his shield being thrust at me like a punch. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his blade coming in lacking my other blade I drew the sword Triton gave me.

Up in the stands I heard people gasp then Triton yell "Take him down little bro!".

"Your a son of Poseidon?" Nico asked looking confused.

"And Amphitrite." I said "Although I was just recently adopted by her."

"No wonder she placed that bet on you." Nico laughed "With your skills and power you could have taken all the other contestants on at the same time!". He slashed with his black sword sending a wave of energy at me. I simply smiled and countered with the same attack canceling his blast. I could feel Nico charging up for an even bigger attack and I didn't want to give him the chance. I began pouring as much power as I could into my swords, in a single leap the two of us were in arms reach of each other, as the three blades met we were blown back from the sheer force of the blast.

At some point I lost control of the air bubble and the water came crashing in dumping me and Nico some where near the center of the Arena. "Hey cuz can you move?" Nico asked.

"Not even an inch." I said "So who won?".

"I believe we can safely call that a draw." My brother said helping me up.

"I can live with that." Hades said doing the same for Nico.

"I have one request..." Nico said "..you've got to let me come back here to train. Me and Percy are almost absolute equals."

* * *

Hera POV

I'd found it, the valley of earth where a great stirring was beginning. I'm not quite sure what brought me here but I can feel something big is happening. All around me the earth churned "What in my husband's name is going on here?" I said to myself.

Up from the earth a carried on the winds a voice whispered "The time of the Olympians is ending soon my children the giants shall rule.". Up from the ground tendrils surrounded me, trapping me "And you shall be a fine wife for my son."

Please review

AN: As you may have guessed this is the start of the giant war. I will include certain key parts of it but I will skip over most of it so I can continue with my main story.

P.S. I'd like to know what you think of Percy's personality A.k.A. cocky, selfish, giving, brave, or some combination, Etc. I need to have it just right later in the story and if needed start making the necessary changes in the next chapter.


	11. The search for Hera

The search for Hera

Third Person POV

In the Olympian throne room the gods sat awaiting Zeus. Eventually The king of the gods himself strode into the room for doing his usual dramatic entrance. "Thank you all for coming." Zeus said taking his seat. "Hera hasn't been home in a few days and at first I didn't think much of it but now I can't find her. Something is blocking her from me, I believe she has been kidnapped and I ask for your help in finding her."

All the gods were unnerved that one of their own could possible taking so easily and quietly. "I will send my son and Heir Nico to search her out." Hades said.

"I will send mine as well." Poseidon said.

Zeus dismissed the two of them to inform and prepare their children of their impending departure. "I will also search for her with my hunters." Artemis said.

* * *

Percy POV

"You ready to go little brother?" Triton asked. "As ready as I'll ever be." I laughed. "The real question is will you be ready? I know you don't typically spend time on the surface. This should be interesting."

He shoved me playfully then flashed us to Athens, the last known location of Hera. "Took you long enough." Nico said rolling off the steps to his father's temple. "All these kings and queens are giving me a headache."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh there's some kind of peace summit being held here right now and every single king and queen is just throwing their ego's around." Nico said. "Plus I've had people running up to the temples all day trying show their loyalty to the gods."

The three of us began making our way through the town "So how do you plan on finding Hera?" I asked. "Assuming she flashed out from here there won't be any tracks to follow."

"I can sense her." Nico said, I couldn't hide my skepticism "I spend my whole day in the underworld with dead people, when I come to the surface mortals are practically glowing with life. And gods actually leave a trail of energy when they move."

"Now that could work." I said.

"Perseus!" I looked over my shoulder to see my other uncle Helic walking towards us. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

It took a while for me to answer because he didn't really seem all that angry at me "I'm here on job for the gods." I said.

"I just wanted to say that I don't agree with what Soluc did, shortly after Soluc resigned and I became king. My wife recently had a son Menelaus, I'd appreciate it if you came to see him." He said emotionlessly.

"Well at least he apologized." Nico said after a minute.

"It wasn't an apology." I said "Helic has a tell for when he's saying something he thinks is bull. He said what he did to look good, but he still hates my guts, after all Orion was his prized pupil."

We spent the better part of a day trying to track down Hera only to arrive at a giant valley, circumstances aside this place looked amazing. The whole valley looked more like a crater than anything else with a mountain coming out of the ground like a spire maybe 300 feet tall. The area immediately around the mountain was all fields for about a mile before turning into a large forest. The whole valley was about 400 square miles with the mountain taking up a fifth of the space.

"This is where the trail ends." Nico said. "Hera's energy is being mixed in with so much more it's like looking for a cloud in a rainstorm. I don't think I could even flash or shadow travel in or out of here." He said lowly.

"Well then I guess this is where I come in." I said crouching down and taking a look at our surroundings. "She went that way." I pointed.

"What makes you so sure?" Triton asked.

"Some of the lower branches are bent and broken plus the footprints help." I said chuckling slightly. Nico and Triton gave me an odd look, I shrugged "Hey I spent two years with one of the greatest hunting parties of all time, you pick up a few things."

The next five hours going well into nightfall we walked across the outer edge of the valley. And eventually came upon two spires growing out of the ground with two forms inside. "That's Hera!" Triton yelled. The three of us ran towards Hera, about halfway the other spire shattered, Triton shouted a warning but I didn't have no time to react. Seconds later I was hit by the butt of a 30 foot spear the last thing I saw before losing consciousness was too beautiful silver eyes.

Artemis POV

After spending a day and a half following Hera's almost nonexistent trail I could finally see her in the distance. A little less than a mile from her prison a giant with dragon like legs and a strange bow (AN: think compound rather than classic). The giant had three monsters for every hunter I had but I trusted in their abilities and left to free Hera when Zoe asked. I could feel something was wrong in my heart yet I trusted my mind which reasoned that my hunters have easily handled twice as many monsters.

I was a dozen yards away when one of the spires collapsed. The gigantic 40 foot tall figure, bearing a sizeable resemblance to the giant I just left, swung his spear at three figures approaching Hera's prison I had failed to notice. Two were able to dodge, but the last was not and was sent flying towards me.

I was able to catch him just before he hit the ground, and I was frozen in shock when I saw that he was in fact Percy. Laying him down on the ground as softly as I could I looked up at the newly formed giant and I couldn't contain my rage. Moving at speeds mortals could never hope to reach I charge him buiring 3 arrows in his head.

The giant merely laughed as his wounds healed and the arrows fell to the floor. "Foolish little girl I am Porphyrion your little sticks cannot hurt me." the giant slammed the butt of his spear on the ground causing a ridge to form around us like a wall.

One of the other boys with black hair and black eyes shouted "Be careful there something off about that wall!".

"Very perceptive son of Hades." He said. "This little wall makes it so you can't run either on foot or by magic till someone dies. Even I, a son of Gaea, couldn't leave and no one can get in." He laughed.

"You're pretty sure of yourself do you really think you can handle all of us. I mean you're just one giant." The black haired boy said.

"I've trained for hundreds of years to take the Olympian gods down. Each and every one of my brothers and sisters were born to take down a specific god. To ensure our victory my father, Tartarus, made it so that we couldn't unless you have the help of a demigod. That's the biggest weakness the gods have, you either go in yourselves or send the demigods. You never want to work with them." Porphyrion laughed pausing a moment to bask in his assumed victory.

"Well thank you for sharing that wonderful information." Percy wheezed picking himself off the ground. "You really shouldn't give that kind of information away just as the battle is getting started." He said.

"Perhaps but it won't make a difference. With one major god and three minor you're seriously lacking a crucial part in killing me and since we know I can't die that means the rest of you will." Porphyrion said grinning like a madman.

Percy one of the most level headed people I know started laughing hysterically "Well for someone preparing to make war on the gods of Olympus you sure didn't do your homework. I'm a demigod moron." He said impaling Porphyrion over a hundred times with water pulled from the air. Triton finished him off by plunging his spear through Porphyrion's eye.

Third person POV -the hunters-

The monsters were defeated in minutes but the dragon skinned Giant refused to die. Thalia blasted him time after time with her bolts. Zoe literally ripped his hand off only for it to reform in seconds. Tiana forced vines to grow through his body like a parasite, Gration as he identified himself, didn't even flinch.

When the wall came up around Artemis Gration just smiled "Soon your goddess will be captured and I'll have my bride but I do suppose I could have room for another." He said eyeing Zoe.

"Not today you Flea infested hag!" if any of the huntresses had looked up at that moment they would have seen Percy dropping out of the sky, Amphitrite's blessing active, launch a massive wave of energy. Gration's head was cleanly removed from his shoulders and nailed to a tree by dozens of Silver arrows.

As the giant began to disintegrate the hunters turn to Percy who merely waved and said "So how's everyone been." before collapsing.

Please review


	12. War on Greece

**Chapter 12**

Percy pov

"Uh my head!" I groaned. Either I'd been out for a couple days or just a few minutes because the sky looked exactly the same.

"Hey there Percy" Zoe said appearing above me.

"Why is there an old lady on a battlefield." I said getting a punch to the ribs as thanks. "Careful I'm wounded." I laughed.

"Just be grateful you're alive, anyone else would have died for that comment." Thalia said entering my field of vision.

"How?" I asked having trouble forming my words.

"The hunters came to Sparta looking for you and Artemis offered to let me join." She explained. "So how are you feeling?".

"Okay I guess. Did anyone get hurt." I asked.

"There's a few minor cut and scrapes but nothing too bad. " Thalia said. "You saved everyone with your rather impressive entrance."

"How did you do that by the way?" Zoe asked. "I've never seen a demigod do that before and I've seen a lot. And beyond that where have you been" The corner of my mouth twitched "Don't even think about it." Zoe said with a knowing look.

"I've been in Atlantis with Amphitrite, my adoptive mother, I joined the Atlantean military and worked my way to the top with Triton's training. You should have seen the look on my Father's face when he realized I'd been right under his nose for over a year." I said smiling at the memory.

Thalia and Zoe helped me sit up and I was met with a sight I never thought I'd see. The whole hunt was huddled around me and they actually looked pleased to see me. "Where's Artemis?" I asked. "You've been out for 5 hours and she was with you for most it." Zoe said. "She even did your bandages for you. Triton just pulled her away to go inform the Council of what's happening."

"So you know what's going on?" I asked.

"A little." Zoe said. "Triton told us what the giant said about how to kill them which is going to be a problem. Over the last year demigods have been showing up dead, we looked into them of course but dismissed it as monster attacks or mortal squabbles gone bad. As of right now there about 30 demigods alive between ages 13 and 43, 43 being the oldest one alive. 25 of those demigods are in the hunt and we have no idea how many Giants we have to fight. And to add one more nail to the coffin there's been a massive simultaneous attack on the Greek kingdoms. Athens, Sparta, Troy, Macedonia, Crete, and a few city states all came under attack yesterday. With all the kings and queens trapped in Athens the people are panicking and nobles are getting greedy."

Zoe POV

The conversation came an end when Artemis flashed back in with Triton, Nico, and Apollo. "Hunters I know you're not going to like this but with matter as they are we're going to have to split up. Zoe, Krista, Tania, Denelle, and Agnis will go with me to Sparta. Ava, Chloe, Sindy, Mia, and Layla will go Nico to Crete. Riley, Evelyn, Aria, Hannah, and Nora will join Triton in aiding Troy. Sarah, Leah, Raven, Piper, and Katie will go with my brother to Macedonia. Everyone else is going to Athens with Percy." Artemis said. "

"Milady wouldn't it be better if we all stayed together." Riley asked.

"No, sadly the enemy has us vastly out numbered. With an unknown number of nearly unstoppable Giants attacking all of Greece we can't go dealing with them one at a time." Artemis said. "If we did too many of the kingdoms would fall and we'd be left to fight off an unbelievable massive force. Athena believes that we should use the mortal armies to help deal with the opposing army's, besides we can't just abandoned them to die fighting something they cannot beat. Percy is reviving the largest because while his group may not have a god in it our enemy believes him to be one."

The hunters simple nodded and started packing up. I walked over Artemis who was in a heated discussion with Triton "...I told you we don't have time." Triton said.

"Please I just need a five minutes with him just to apologize." Artemis pleaded.

"Tell you what after the war I'll make sure you get your five minutes." He said, getting a small nod from Artemis.

* * *

Percy POV

I stood atop the walls of Athens, for six months I've defended this city but today would be the last. Sparta, Crete, and Macedonia had successfully repelled their invaders nearly two weeks ago. Macedonia was heading for Troy, Crete was sending troops to help the smaller city states, and Sparta was heading this way.

Our resources were getting low, unless we defeat the Giant Enceladus and his army today we won't have the strength to keep fighting, our food supply ran out three days ago. Our walls may look strong but they could barely hold off the wind. Today we were going to launch a counter attack and pray we won because that is all we could do.

I walked down off the wall to find Thalia waiting for me "The men are ready." She said sorrowfully. I couldn't blame her we were most likely marching to our deaths. I stood in front of the troops and gave them the most inspirational speech I could and charged into battle.

Me and Thalia were the main driving forces in the battle but even we couldn't balance the difference in numbers. My mind went calm as instinct and reflexes took over for me. The battle went by in a blur till something caught my eye, a cyclops with a tattoo of three claw marks in a circle of grape vines. He wasn't attacking the Athenians, he was attacking the Enceladus' army, in a moment I came up with a very risky strategy.

I turned to the Athenian General Gork "General tell your men to Ignore the monsters with that type of mark on them. It might just give us a chance." Gork nodded and relayed the order.

Within a few minutes the tide of the battle had changed in our favor and I found myself face to face with Enceladus. "You've put up quite a fight there demigod but even the lowest of creatures could see this is an act of desperation." he laughed.

I merely smirked "True but whether a being be man or beast he never fights harder then when he's cornered." I said cutting the tip off his spear.

Enceladus tried to hit me with the butt of his spear only to be blocked by a man in blue armor with blue hair and a red spear. "Well said kid now let's take this overgrown roach down." The man disappeared in a blur and reappeared with the head of his spear buried in Enceladus' back.

I was so shocked Enceladus nearly crushed me as he attempted to tear the new guy of his back. When the giant opened his mouth to unleash a torrent of flames I summoned a wall of water to shield us and hid my charge. I struck his left side claiming an eye and the new guy buried his spear in his head. "Nice moves there kid, the names Cuchulain. My friends call me Chulain." he said as Enceladus died

"I'm Perseus but most call me Percy." I said.

"Just a warning Gaea herself is trying to rise you need to tell the Olympians." He said. "Also if you ever need some help give me a shout."

Please review.


	13. Gaea Part 1

-Gaea Part 1-

Third Person POV

At the base of a small mountain the assembled Armies of the Olympian gods gathered. The tension in the air was so thick one might have tried cutting it with a knife. The soldiers both young and old, timid and crazed had seen enough bloodshed to last a lifetime. The war against Gaea had lasted four long years resulting in thousands of casualties on both sides.

Percy sat on top a small stone wall once used to keep cattle in the field by the late farmer who lived there before the war. The young prince had grown quite a bit in the last few years, though he was still considered lean, Percy had packed on massive amounts of muscle and his shoulders became broader making him a magnet for the ladies. Despite this Percy never seemed to take an interest in the opposite sex the sole exception being Artemis. The two rarely spoke and even then the conversations never took a romantic nature, the truth was instead seen in their eyes, a boundless and unwavering love for the other that neither could see, held back in fear of rejection or death of the other.

Many of the girls who sought after Percy felt that his devotion to the huntress was unearned and undeserved. After all Percy had, if unintentionally obtained quite a reputation, in battle he seemed to be able to turn the tide for his men. No matter the situation he dealt with others justly and honorably. Percy had gained respect kings and warlords only dreamt about, shortly after the siege of Athens he was given a platoon of twenty soldiers, within a year's time it grew to a staggering thirteen hundred only to double a year later. Honorable rogue's, mercenaries, and assassins were drawn to this man who seemed to defy all belief in both his skill with a blade and the strength of his character. Ares even once said 'after this war the brat could probable claim half of Greece as his own kingdom without even drawing a sword'.

Yes Percy seemed to have it all but in his mind he felt lesser than he ever had before. Every death of a comrade weighed heavily on his shoulders. The joy and love he had gained with his father, stepbrother, and step mother made him feel guilty that it had been obtain in some sense through the death of his own twin and mother. In the back of his mind Percy could still hear his beloved's words 'you're a monster'.

Percy shook his head violently and pushed himself off the wall if his men were to have any chance today he needed to have a clear head. He strode into camp and called forth his number 2 Bellerophon, he was an older man in his early forties and with that came much wisdom but, Percy feared that there was to much pride in his heart. Bellerophon was the great grandson of Atlas and had become heir to the kingdom of Lyca 7 years prior. "Prepare the men." Percy said calmly "My father has told me that we are to attack before noon."

Bellerophon nodded and left towards the command tent where the officers were no doubt using their free time to gamble. Percy let out a sigh, tomorrow was his 25th birthday. Back in Sparta it was tradition that if a young man was still unmarried by his 25th he would be placed in an arranged marriage by his father or guardian to a young woman in the same social class, yet he now felt lower than ever. Percy took a deep breath, it was decided, he'd ask Artemis to marry him. If she said yes then Percy would be the happiest man in the world. If she turned him down... he'd leave as much as he loved his family he couldn't stay where he'd see the woman he loved every day and know she didn't feel the same.

* * *

Artemis POV 3 hours later

I dropped to a knee ducking my opponent's blade and sliced his thigh with my knife then doing the same to his throat as he fell. The giants had surprised us, we hadn't expected or even known Tartarus could expel them from his domain once every thousand years. Hades had disappeared within the first hour of the battle along with his rival giant.

Apollo had been right next to me for most of the battle till yet another Giant with the head of lion tackled him and they both fell down the mountain. Somehow through the noise of the battle I heard Zoe scream out in pain. I snapped my head in her direction and nearly lost an eye for it, Gration was back.

Swiftly killing the geco like lizard man in front of me with a knife to the heart I turned and ran to help Zoe. Gration had his back to me as I plunged my hunting knives into his back. The Giant roared in pain and began trying to fling me off sending Zoe flying in the process. Seconds later I came loose and Gration caught me mid air and slammed me into the ground. I felt at least two possibly 3 ribs break and I could taste blood in my mouth. "Tsk, tsk my little hunter that wasn't very nice. I was going to wait until after the wedding to have my fun but now I'm not so sure." He said.

Gration was the perfect embodiment of everything I hated, he was handsome but his smile showed a perverse and cruel nature, and his eye's had a dark gleam in it that glowed brighter at causing pain. Despite this I smiled up at him, why you ask, because I saw Zoe descending with an axe she got from who knows where. The axe bit deep into Gration's back yet he didn't die, the giant smiled at our confused looks and pointed to Zoe. "She's a nature spirit not a demigod." He said before ripping to axe out of his back.

* * *

Apollo POV

My little roll down the mountain left me dozens of bruises and cuts and probably a concussion but I was determined. When the two of us finally hit some part of level ground I landed squarely in his chest knocking the wind out of him. Pulling myself back together I snatched the dagger out of the giants belt and tried to stab him. Leon backhanded me and I went flying to the opposite side of the ledge. The two of us scrambled to our feet and I tackled his legs which thankfully worked because he was on the smaller side as far as giants go, only 14 feet tall. I couldn't let him get a chance to prepare since I only had an off balance dagger and he was fully armed still.

I scored a deep cut on his bicep but that would only slow him for so long. Leon stood up and immediately pitched forward as a spear pierced his shoulder. It wasn't until that point that I heard the shouting, slightly farther down the mountain Percy's forces were charging up. Leon attempted to capitalize on my momentary distraction but was held up by a few of Percy's assassins that had run ahead of the group. They threw a rope around the giant's neck and forced to his back causing the spear to fully pass through his body.

As more of Percy's army reached us the few dozen members of the giants army either ran up the mountain to rejoin the main portion of the army or surrendered. Meanwhile more and more ropes were thrown over Leon and pulled tight by dozens of men, holding him in place, while archers and spearmen proceed to turn the lion headed giant into a porcupine. Hurling my stolen dagger as a simple throwing knife I pierced his eye much like the Python. I was shocked when Leon crumble to dust signifying a demigod had also landed a mortal blow that I had not noticed but I moved on.

After Leon's death we resumed our charge up the mountain and found myself next to Percy. "I thought you were going up the other side mountain?" I said.

"We were but Gaea's forces have erected a barrier to prevent us from sneaking up behind them. I wasn't sure if I could break it so I had my men drop low to avoid the archers and now we're joining the main army." He said and I nodded in understanding.

All of Percy men had taken on a very simple crest that held a deep meaning to them. It was two swords crossed in front of a shield, the swords in addition to being based off Percy represented the tools they used to defend greece and the shield represented their lives which were used to protect their homes.

I took a quick detour to grab my bow and quiver then flashed to where I left Arty. The sight before me made my blood boil, Artemis was pinned under Gration's foot while he was slowly crushing one of her hunters...who was my daughter! I fired 2 arrows puncturing his elbow and knee cap. The giant freed both my daughter and sister as he hobbled back attempting to pull my arrows from his limbs.

Percy ran past me surprising me with his speed at having caught up so quickly. Gration having pulled the arrow from his arm ignored the second one so he could fire an arrow at Percy. The demigod deflected the missile with both swords before burying them both to the hilt in the giant gut. Then for added measure sent a small pulse of energy through his blades causing the giant's body to explode backwards. Percy turned to Artemis "I'll take care of her and the wounded you run on a head." I shouted.

Percy nodded and ran, a dozen men stayed behind to guard us but the rest followed Percy up the mountain. Artemis was in the worst condition of all with three broken ribs, a cracked femur, and a small amount of internal bleeding. I had to keep the bulk of my focus on her just to prevent bone fragments from drifting anywhere dangerous. Once she was in the clear I moved onto the others who barely to a few minutes each. Finished I looked up into the sky shocked to find the sun had gone down when it hadn't been later than 4 when I began to treat Arty. Suddenly the whole mountain shook as the peak lit up knocking me off my feet.


	14. Gaea part 2

**Gaea Part 2**

Poseidon POV

"Moving a little slow there Poseidon, not getting tired are you." Polybytes taunted. Rather than reply I fired a beam of energy into the ground sending shrapnel at the giant. Fighting Polybytes was like having to fight both my brothers without my trident or arms. I jumped back dodging the giants net and found myself back to back with my brother Zeus "Got any bright ideas?" he asked.

"As a matter of fact I do. SWITCH!" in sync the two of us rotated still back to back and blasted our new opponent with a wave of energy.

Behind me Zeus chuckled "I'm feeling better already."

With the Giants edge removed the two of us proved to be more than a match for them. During my battle with Porphyrion a solid black sword pierced his neck followed closely by a golden spear. My brothers nemesis crumbled to reveal a daughter of Ares and my brother Hades grinning a mad man. Needless to say I was seriously considering suicide to get away from whatever got my brother in a good mood, I'd never seen him smile this much.

Hades ran past me actually laughing and I decide right there he had to have a concussion. I followed after him worried for his safety, meanwhile Hades was hacking at enemies left and right killing any foe in his path. Up a head I saw my younger brother fighting the giant. I prepared to aid him but it wasn't necessary, because Percy came by and killed the giant quickly by severing his spine.

With the giant and most the other monsters defeated we all started running about chasing the enemy back. As we near the peak of the mountain nine pillars of light shot up into the sky. At the center of the two nearest me was a giant. As I stood there trying to understand what was happening light began to flow across the ground like water forming dozens of overlapping magical circles.

"Athena what is happening?" My brother asked his daughter.

"The Giants are attempting to summon their mother using the power they siphoned from their chosen gods!" She said.

"Well what can we do?" I asked as the ground began to rumble.

"Use your power to break the crests." Athena said firing her own blast of energy. Many of the other gods and the few mystics we had followed suit as best we could but every time we broke a crest it simply reformed.

"Athena why isn't it working?" I asked once it was clear we weren't making a difference.

"There's too many magic circles reinforcing each other I'd have to spend weeks or even months studying this to know the right points to hit." she said.

"Then what do we do?" I said.

"We can do nothing to stop Gaea from being summoned." She said in defeat slumping her shoulders slightly. For a moment everyone who heard her just froze unsure what to do. After a second Athena squared her shoulders and began issuing orders of where Gods should go and telling them to attack on her signal.

"What are you doing I thought you said you can stop it." I said to my longtime rival.

"We can't but there's a small chance that if we hit the earth mother just as she finishes forming we might be able to put her back to sleep." Athena said charging as much power she could without entering her true form.

"Exactly how small the chance are we talking?" I asked doing the same.

"I'd say Hercules would have a better chance of Artemis getting on her knees and begging to marry him." She said.

"We're screwed." I laughed "well as this is probably going to be our last fight together, friends?"

"Friends." She agreed. Gaea was rising out of the ground and there was this fear spilling through our troops, on some level everyone knew we had lost we were just going out with a bang. Percy ran past me and stab one of his swords into a magical crest and then jammed his other blade into a different one just barely within reach. The crests crackled slightly at being disturbed but were otherwise unaffected.

Finally Percy activated my wife blessing, the tattoos flared blue briefly before turning green as Gaea's energy began passing through them. Instantly my son's hands and clothes started to smoke, screams tore themselves from his throat. "No stop him!" Gaea said, her voice seem to vibrate through the ground and into my skull "Whoever kills that demigod will be rewarded greatly."

Numberless monsters swept towards Percy but the mortals took up ranks around him forming a solid wall nearly 60 men thick with more still coming. The form of Gaea began to convulse almost like she was retching and cracks of white light spread across her body like shattering glass. The earth mother's body exploded outward sending nearly everyone flying back and emitted the brightest light I'd ever seen.

Dragging myself to my feet I winced realizing my ankle was broken but hobbled over to my son using my trident as a crutch. Percy was on his back completely still with both of his hands red and blistered. "Why must you always do this Percy?" I asked knowing he wouldn't answer. "You've made me so proud my son I'd give anything to have you back."

"Anything?" Percy asked giving me his best trickster grin.

"Percy!" I scream pulling him into a hug.

"Ow, ow, ow. Dad watch the ribs their bruised enough already." I just laughed and hugged him tighter. Athena limped over to us and asked what Percy did. The technical stuff went over my head, but it basically boiled down to this. Percy used his body to alter two magical crests changing their function in a way that would turn Gaea's own power against her. Athena then asked how he knew it would work to which Percy replied 'um I didn't.' causing a couple of chuckles throughout the crowd.

Apollo flashed in a few seconds later demanding to know what happened so we told him while he worked on Percy's hands. Afterwards he told us that he had saved Artemis and the others but they were unconscious at the moment.

-Time skip-

Percy POV

After the battle on Mount Helicon I elected to walk to Athens with my men rather than flashing there with my father. Well none of my men would be going to Athens as most were wanted men but I wanted to see them off and be there for the funerals of those who didn't make it.

Now after over a month of traveling I could see Athens in the distance maybe a half a day away. Behind me I heard a rustle of leaves, drawing my swords I turn to face the noise. "Good, very good instincts," A man said clapping softly. He had blood red eyes and smoke like hair "it seems that my sources were correct you do wield a symbol of power, yes I do believe you shall make a fine addition."

"Addition to what?" I asked wondering just who the Hades this man was.

"To my pack of course." He said grinning maniacally, at the edges of the forest I could hear low growls drifting towards me. "Perhaps I should introduce myself. My name it Lycon and I was once a prince of Sparta much like yourself."

My jaw clenched when I heard his name, every man in Sparta was told the story of Lycon the wolf king. He once tried to kill his own father to ascend to the throne and even attempted to feed the gods human flesh to desecrate them. Afterwards he and his sons were turned into wolves and cast out from Greece. It's said during his years in exile Lycon learn many forbidden spells that turn him from an animal to a demon in animal form.

Lycon just stood there smiling as I dealt with this revelation and that struck me as odd. Never once was he foolish (in the strategic sense) so why would he just wait so patiently. Too little too late I noticed the shadows forming behind me. A wolf that seemed to be made of pure shadows bit deep into my shoulder.

Grunting in pain I was able to rip him off me and toss him at Lycon but the damage was done. The wound in my shoulder felt like it was on fire and the pain was spreading through my veins at unbelievable speeds. "Foolish child you fell for the oldish trick in the book." Lycon laughed. I tried to charge him but he simply said "Stop." and my legs froze "Now stand straight!".

Fear gripped my heart as my body refused to listen to me. "Do you like it?" He taunted. "Up North a group of nomadic mystics infused into me the power to not only pass on my curse but demand absolute loyalty of the infected." He said stepping closer. "Now drop your swords." I refused using every ounce of willpower I had to hold onto them.

This action seemed to annoy Lycon "I guess it's to be expect that those will great power have strong wills. We'll soon fix that however, once your transformation is complete I'll have you got into Athens and kill every single member of your family and your friends. I'll make you look upon the one you love most with a smile on your face as you rip their heart out with your bare hands. Just give in as of now you are just a tool in my arsenal, now **DROP YOUR SWORDS."**

No matter what I tried my hands refused to listen to me and my swords clanged on the ground. "Now I'd like you to bring Artemis to me, with the power I've acquired I should easily be able to subjugate her, but first bow before your new master."

As my body began to take a knee Lycon's plans for Artemis echoed in my mind. 'He wants to take her from her family. He wants to hurt her. He wants to humiliate her for his own revenge. I can't let that happen. I won't let that happen. **I REFUSE TO LET THAT HAPPEN.** Suddenly power started seeping into my limbs burning just as much as Lycon's curse but I didn't care.

With a roar I lunged at Lycon pinning him to a tree and digging my growing claws into his sides " **I won't let you hurt her or anyone else! And I REFUSE to be your puppet! I don't care what happens to me but you and your pack will die here!"** I screamed plunging my hand through his chest and ripping his heart out the other side. Lycon's shocked and terrified expression was the last thing on his face when dissipated into shadows. The new found power coursing through my veins kept building till I felt my body erupt into pure energy killing Lycon's pack and then every went dark.

The End...Of this chapter.

AN: sorry this took so long things have been getting chaotic at my house but I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Next Time: The beast is born, Guest staring Ananke Primordial goddess of fate and destiny!


	15. The Beast is Born

The beast is Born

Apollo POV (2 days after Percy fought Lycon)

"Bring me more wine." I cheered putting my arm around my cousin Nico. Finally after over a month later all the rebuilding was done and the Olympians had decided to throw a party. "So what happened to your dad again?" I asked.

"He got stuck in the shade for a couple hours while he was fighting Alcyoneus. The shade is simple what connects all shadows together and being there for more than a few minutes can have certain 'effects' on the mind but they wear off after a week or so. It starts jumbling up your personality, your still you but it brings out a different side of you." Nico said

"So what side of your father was that?" I asked legitimately interested.

"I think it was his happy/affectionate side but I didn't really get to see that much of it. About an hour after we got back home mother kicked me out of the palace for the next few days." He said.

I had to chuckle at that "Well he's not the only one acting a little off ever since two day's ago Arty has been pestering me for a prophecy or any word really on where Percy is."

"You do realise she's head over heels for Percy right?" Nico said.

"Ya I know." I said getting serious "I took me a while to come to terms with it but whether my father likes it or not Percy's the best man for her. That's why I told Percy he had my blessing before he left with the rogue legion (that's the official name of Percy's men)."

"For real?" Nico asked, I nodded.

"What about the law forbidding gods and demigods from having kids together?" He inquired.

"That won't be a problem Poseidon's been pushing for Percy to be made a god all month. My father and Athena are the only members of the council still holding out and Athena already told me she would agree. She just wanted to see Poseidon beg a little more." I said pausing as thunder boomed "And Dad just caved."

"To Percy!" Nico cheered raising his drink to the sky

"That's the spirit Cuz." I laughed giving him a rough pat on the back.

"Pardon me my lords but would you be able to tell me where I could find Lord Perseus of the Rogue Legion." A man asked.

Sparing him a glance, the man seemed to be a retired soldier with many scars. He rose from his bow I spotted Percy's crest. "Sorry but Percy has yet to arrive, I believe he's still seeing his legion home." I said.

"But that's impossible I was part of the last battalion of soldiers, even if he was traveling at a leisurely pace it should have taken just under a day to get here from my village." He said. Magically Artemis who I could have sworn was across the room suddenly appeared next to me with pleading eyes, Athena just behind her.

"Fine we'll go look for him." I said throwing my hands in the air.

"Thank you brother." Artemis said.

"I think I'll go too" Athena said.

"Me three." Nico said.

* * *

"This way" Nico said.

"Are you sure?" Athena asked.

"Yes the area around here is practically on fire with energy like a god entered their true form." He said.

We stepped into a clearing and my breath caught. The whole area was covered in soot except for a few spots shaped like some kind of four legged beast. "What are those?" Nico asked.

"Their called spirit shadows." Athena said "When a creature is destroyed by a god's true form their soul leaves an imprint behind." Near the center of the blast I saw Artemis pick up what looked like a Jade sun set into a piece of solid gold.

"A god did this!" I seethed.

"No I don't believe so" Athena said walking over to Artemis who was kneeling. "That belonged to Perseus did it not." Artemis nodded. "May see it?" Artemis nodded and let Artemis have it.

"If it wasn't a god then what was it." Nico asked

"Well let's look at the evidence shall we, as I stand here in the center I cannot find a spirit shadow that looks even remotely human. And the necklace, it's been partially melted on the back, judging by what I know about Perseus he would not have tried to run from his enemy he would have gone for the kill." She said.

"Are you suggesting the Spark?" I asked.

"I cannot see another option." Athena said embracing Artemis and I fell to my knees"I am sorry my sister."

"What the Spark?" Nico asked clearly not liking where this was going.

"The Spark refers to the power within all demigods. A son of Ares believed it would be possible for a demigod to enter a true form similar to a god's but at a severely diminished level. After years of research and training he achieved his goal and died because of it. You see the mortal half of a demigod can't handle being turned into pure energy. After that the demigods power turns into a single explosion killing themselves and anything close by."

For the next few moments everyone was quiet, then Athena spoke "Come we must tell the Council."

* * *

Artemis POV

The walk back to my palace was long and quiet. Out of the other council members Poseidon seemed to have taken the news hardest. Hades of all people came to the rescue by pointing out that we could still make Percy a god once his soul was located in the underworld. Yet still I could only feel lost as I walked into my home and threw myself on my bed. There alone in my home I couldn't hold back the tears.

Aphrodite POV

"Hey Artemis." I said softly.

"Come to gloat about me falling in love." She said.

"No, I might do that some day but right now you need a sister." I said embracing her "Just this once, for tonight, you can tell me anything you want and no one will ever know."

"I-I love him with all my heart and soul…" She began, I just hoped that someday she would be able to know the truth about what happened.

* * *

Percy POV (1 after fighting Lycon)

"Ah my head." I groaned.

"Easy there child don't push yourself." A deep but soft voice said.

Slowly I opened my eyes to see what was probably the oldest satyr I've ever seen, the creepy old ladies and a somewhat good looking lady with black hair. "Who are you?" I asked.

The satyr leaned back in his chair and smiled "My name is Pan god of the wild the four ladies to my right are the Fates and their mother Ananke Primordial goddess of Destiny and formerly Fate. Tell what do you remember last."

"Let's see I was on my way back to Athens when...Lycon!" I sat up at first looking at my hands Till I noticed the large mirror sitting directly across from me. My hair was even more untamed than usual also wild. My canines had grown to the point that it would be impossible to hide them without a mask, and my hands had claws. "I'm-I'm a…"

"Werewolf" Pan finished for me "Yes once Lycans curse took hold this was somewhat inevitable. But hey on the bright side he won't be able to control you now that you're a god."

"I'm a god!" I shouted. "How is that even possible?"

"Perhaps I should explain." Ananke said "You see there are many ways for a mortal to become a god. One can drink from the fountain of youth, bath in the shadow fire of Tartarus, eat the fruit from either the garden of Thalassa or Hemera. Or you can just have 10 major class or higher gods perform the spell of ascension. These five methods were considered to be the only possible path to becoming a god, but no you just had to go and prove everyone wrong."

Ananke leaned back in her chair seemingly lost in thought "I remember as a child before my Grandfather Chaos left for the void he said to me 'I have worked hard to render Mortals incapable of attaining godhood on their own in the hopes that the corrupt are never able to do so. But as the god of creation I know there is no way to do so completely. There is a chance that if a mortal were to devote himself to a single purpose, goal, or ideal to the point of purging all else from his being he shall attain domain over it.' " Ananke paused so she could look at me directly.

"After nearly 10 billion years his prophecy has come true because of you Perseus God of Heros. You did what no one thought possible, you decide the fates themselves when the declared it would never happen. You literally ripped your Destiny from their hands and made your own path which is why I've decided to give you my domain of Destiny."

"Mother! You promised that we would receive that domain." The Fate closest to me said.

"I said I would give it to you if I couldn't find some better suited for it. Perseus here has more then done that even if doesn't know it yet." Ananke said. Fuming the Fates flashed out "Don't worry about them they're just mad they lost a chance at becoming Primordial goddess, now I really must be going...oh and that sword from your sister also makes you the god of Waves, ciao." And with that Ananke left as well.

Pan just let me sit there for a while till I got was able to digest everything that just happened. "Whoa." I said after what felt like hours.

"Whoa indeed young Perseus" Pan laughed.

"Is there something I can help you with Lord Pan?" I asked.

"There is but before we get to that how do you feel?"

"I don't know to be honest I feel like me and not me at the same time." I said.

"I can understand that." Pan said "Before I was Pan Major god of the wild I was Phanes Primordial god of nature. In the war that lead to my brother Uranus becoming king of the Primordials I was gravely wounded and face with a choice. Should I fade or do I give up most of my power to live on as a weaker being. It's fairly obvious what I decided but most cannot bear to do the same. Afterwards I didn't feel like myself so I chose a new name Pan."

"So you're saying I should change my name?"

"No I was just saying what worked for me." He said "Neso former Primordial of Islands tried to cope by making a crown out of poison Ivy and making everyone call him king ichy."

For nearly an hour I couldn't stop laughing "Thank you I really need that." I said wiping the tears from my eyes "So what was it you wanted?"

Pan's once smiling face suddenly became depressed "I've recently started to fade again and this time I cannot avoid it. After the Titans fell I built a Pantheon of my own equal to that of the Greek gods. For years we have lived in peace but now that I am fading I need someone who can take my place as king of the beast gods and I want you to be that person. Already you have gained the respect of most of my people through your actions. Be warned though if you accept you most work to ensure that this Pantheon must remain hidden for the Greeks aren't ready to learn of us. revealing ourselves now will only start a war. So what is your decision?"

* * *

AN: And that's a rap. First off I feel I should point out that a 'beast god' is a monster, animal, or nature spirit that has attained god hood. Second as you can see I ended the chapter before Percy makes his decision, I intended to leave that up to you the readers. Right now I can see this story going one of two way's

1) Percy chooses to take Pan up on his offer.

Or

2) Percy chooses to leave and live alone ashamed at what he's become.

* * *

Post your vote through the reviews. Plead your case for whichever you like most. And feel free to give idea's for things you want to see later on, if I see any I like I'll put them in.


	16. Meeting My Daughter

-Meeting My Daughter-

Percy POV

I stepped out of my home and breathed in the morning air. It's been 400 years since I had accepted Pan's offer and had been able adjust for the most part. I just didn't feel like I deserved to be their king so rather than live in the main capital I chose to make my home in the valley we passed when Triton, Nico, and I were looking for Hera. (Seen in the Search for Hera)

Triton, one of these days I would have to return and I didn't know what I'd say. Would they even still accept me now that I'm a werewolf or for abandoning them. Yes Mother, Father, and Triton I was sure but what about Artemis.

I shook head, now was no time for depressing thoughts. My life may have changed drastically but it was still a good one. The Beast God council was completely crazy but they were good people. Shifting to my wolf form I decided to go for a run, along the way I heard a couple kids shout out my name.

I had chosen to follow in Pan's footsteps and made a new name for myself Borthomire. Now everyone knew me as Borthomire, King of Beast, and High God of Heroes, Destiny, Waves, and the Wild. Although council members would still call me Percy from time to time when we were alone. That last one had been a bit of a surprise, Pan had decided to make me heir to his domain and I didn't know till after he faded.

On my right I saw Cuchulain, God of defending home and family, out for a run as well before he turned south heading towards the Beast God capitol El Dorado. Cuchulain was a fairly laid back guy and the son of Lugh a celtic spear God and the Nemean lioness. In his human form he was very lean and had blue hair tied back in a ponytail and slit red eyes. In his lion form his fur looked to be made of Sapphire's and while not as strong as his mother's could still stop most weapons. He doesn't talk about his past that much though and he hates both his parents.

I paused as I reached the top of the mountains surrounding my valley. The stone of the mountains held a deep violet almost black color before meeting the tree line making a beautiful contrast. When I claimed this valley as mine I sent out a declaration to all monsters and nature spirits 'any who wish for a life of peace and safety come to my valley where the world of mortal cannot find you. But I warn you if you take this offer you take a vow of peace with it until I release you.'

Turning back I decided to take the long route taking me relatively near a small town. As I passed within ten miles I found two people out in the woods. One was a short and quite fat man the other was a beautiful young woman holding a bundle of cloth in her arms I could smell a child underneath them. "Here should be far enough." The fat man wheezed.

The woman set the now crying bundle down on the forest floor and started walking away with the man. Quickly as I could I got ahead of them and switched to my human form. "Why are you leave the child behind?" I asked stepping out where they could see me.

The fat guy simply drew his sword "Relax I'm not here to harm you." I said putting my arms up.

"She'll just be in the way." The fat man said "I'm the third son of a local lord having a child with this peasant woman was the best way to raise my standing. But now the king of Corinth has taken an interest in having her for a wife, if he does she as Queen can make me my father's heir. It's a win win"

"And the only thing that could ruin that, is proof that she isn't a virgin." I finished. "Very well you may go." The man looked skeptical. "What who's gonna believe a mountain man nobody has heard of over a Nobel."

The Nobel seemed to ponder this then sheathed his sword and walked away with the girl in tow. I picked the little up and lightly rocked to sleep, at that moment I was reminded of how often I had wished for a child of my own. Forgetting about my run I flashed directly to the throne room with the child.

In the throne room Pisces was talking to Gorgona about clothing. "What do you have there Borthomire?" She asked. Gorgona was the mother of the Gorgons, Goddess of Truth, and bound by a particular curse. What ever kind of person she was inside was reflected in her physical appearance, for once you actually could judge a scroll by its cover. She was also brutally honest.

Pisces, otherwise known as the Celestial Queen, was the Goddess of Loyalty, Compassion, Joy, Sea Foam, and Destruction. She was extremely kind which often made it hard to believe she was a Leviathan. Once upon a time she was tasked with protect the island the fountain of youth resided on. I rather liked the fountain of youth because it affected people based on what kind of person they were.

The wicked were turn into vegetation drastically changing the landscape of the desert island. To the neutral it could heal sickness and extend your life. To the pure of heart it grants what their heart wants most. Pisces spent thousands of years protecting it as she was told but her mother Thalassa but fell in love with a wounded god man who appeared on its shores.

She tried to heal him with the fountain but it didn't work so she took him to her mother who healed him. Afterwards that the man came to visit from time to time and she wished nothing more than to be with him so she drank from the fountain hoping to become human, instead it made her a goddess so she could take human form. Thus the goddess Pisces married the former Primordial Uranus and gave birth to Aphrodite the only member of the Olympian Pantheon to know about us.

"A child that was left in the woods, I was actually looking for Thuke I was hoping he could teach me the blood bond spell he was talking about last week." I said.

"Ooo is our king about to have a son." Gorgona teased.

"Daughter but yes." I said looking at the little girl sleeping in my arms.

"Stay here where it's quiet I'll go find him" she said and Pisces moved to get a better look at my soon to be daughter.

"Oh she's so cute!" Pisces' squeaked.

"Found him." Gorgona said as she walked in with Thuke and the rest of the council. I gave Gorgona my best 'what the hades' look "I may have done a little gossiping." She laughed.

"So where's the girl?" Ignatius said. As the half Dragon son of Helios Ignatius tended to be a bit on the stern side, just but stern.

"Percy you're just picking girls everywhere you see." Chulain Teased.

"So can you teach that blood bond spell to me." I asked ignoring Chulain's comment.

"Well I could but I think you'd prefer I just cast the spell." Thuke said. "Now unwrap the blanket a bit so I can see her shoulder."

I did so showing her blond hair and Thuke pulled out a knife "Whoa, Whoa." I said backing up.

"Calm down Borthomire." Thuke sighed "I need to put a light cut on her arm and one on your hand so the blood can mix now get over here." I nodded and stood as still as I could. Thuke placed a very shallow V shaped cut on her left arm then made a cut the same size in the palm of my hand. "Now put your cut over hers." Thuke started chanting in a language I didn't know for about five minutes then stopped "To complete the spell you have to name her."

"Hello Lupa." I said smiling at the girl.

* * *

Third Person POV

That night Percy flashed into the king of Corinth's bedroom "Who are you!" the barely 18 year old boy shouted.

"I just teleported into your room think kid." Percy grumbled pinching the bridge of his nose.

The boy sat in his bed for a few seconds before jumping out and bowing to Percy "Forgive me lord...?"

"Borthomire God of the Wild, heir of Pan." He said "And get up I'm not big on the whole bowing thing."

"To what do I owe this honor Lord Borthomire." The Prince said standing up.

"A young woman you're attempting to court in a village near the Savernake forest. What do you know about her?" Percy asked.

"She a peasant but comes from a good family and she recently become a servant at Lord Suten's manor I believe."

"There's a lot you missed then." Percy said. "His rather pudgy third son has had a child with her."

"I was there just today and I didn't see anything." He said.

"They left there three month old daughter in the woods and killed off the few servants who knew." I said. "Now I won't tell you what to do but marrying her will only lead to ruin." Percy before flashing out.

"They'll be in chains before sunrise." The Prince said to himself "And I need to build a temple to Borthomire."

* * *

AN: Hope you all like the chapter and be expecting a chapter called beast council which is just going to be info on the beast god council, no story. If you don't want to read it fine I'm just doing this to make things easier on you guys/girls.


	17. The Beast Council

-Beast Council-

Percy POV

Pidera was a Fairy (AN: yes like tinkerbell) until she was burned by the shadow flames of Tartarus. The law of Shadow fire was will, if your will was strong enough the flames would release 'hidden powers' whatever that means and if not you could lose power. She was originally part of the Norse Pantheon but was kicked out when her daughters, the first Valkyries, proved to be too strong. In the end everything worked out as the Primordials destroyed the Norse shortly after. She is 5' 10'', has large white wings, brown hair, wears the traditional Valkyrie attire and is always looking for a good challenge.

Gorgona was the mother of the Gorgons, Goddess of Truth, and bound by a particular curse. What ever kind of person she was inside was reflected in her physical appearance, for once you actually could judge a scroll by its cover. She was also brutally honest

Pisces, otherwise known as the Celestial Queen, was the Goddess of Loyalty, Compassion, Joy, Sea Foam, and Destruction. She was extremely kind which often made it hard to believe she was a Leviathan. Once upon a time she was tasked with protect the island the fountain of youth resided on.

Then there's Tiamat goddess of Chaotic Sea. Tiamat is my mother's not so close half sister a daughter of Oceanus and Keto. Aside from the snake like tail finned at the tip she looks completely normal in a green dress with black hair. She can be a bit moody but apparently my 'death' has started bringing her and my mother closer together.

And the last of the girls is Feronia Goddess of wildlife, fertility, health and abundance. She is strong willed and has a firm belief in Peace like her father Pan. But don't let that fool you. If you get her mad she can switch aspects from a peace loving woman to Goddess of the 7 deadly sins. She also loses touch with her other domains until she calms down giving the term bipolar a whole new meaning. For some reason she can only access one set of domains at a time. Her rages tend to be brief but devastating. Usually we just let her burn out when that happens because if you managed to enrage her you deserved it. She is generally seen with red hair and fair skin.

Thuke is the God of Learning and Teaching. He's one of the few normal gods in our Pantheon, that is if any god can be considered normal, and likes to spend his time reading. His sacred animal is the Yeti and he has strength to match Hercules. He's often confused with the Egyptian god Thoth which really ticks him off as the two of the always butted heads before Thoth and most of the Egyptian gods faded. He is one of the most sought after bachelors in our pantheon but he has yet to do much more than kiss a girl. Pidera once asked why and his reply was "I have lived since before the titans rule and the Egyptians were still young. And I in all that time I have learned exactly what would grant me true happiness and what kind of person the woman would have to be in order for her to be happy as well. So I decided it would be best to avoid those fleeting moment of happiness and pleasure to make my time with her all the more precious." Pidera thinks he being unrealistic but it's his decision to make.

As the God of defending home and family, Cuchulain was a fairly laid back guy and the son of Lugh a celtic spear God and the Nemean lioness. In his human form he was very lean and had blue hair tied back in a ponytail and slit red eyes. In his lion form his fur looked to be made of Sapphire's and while not as strong as his mother's could still stop most weapons. He doesn't talk about his past that much though and he hates both his parents. He'll flirt with just about any girl he sees but has yet to sire a single child despite having literally dozens of extremely attractive goddess and nature spirits and other beings chasing after him.

Then there is me Borthimire which is where I usually like to end it but Gorgona has been rather insistent I get used to my full list of domains and titles. Those being Borthomire, master of the sword, god of Hero's, Destiny, Waves, and the Wild king of beast, Gaea's bane. A little over dramatic for my tastes but I've found life is much easier if I let her do her thing. Pisces has asked a number of times if I intend to marry now that I have a daughter and the answer is no, call it romantic or pathetic if you want but I still love Artemis.

Zeref is also a normal God but his domains are Monsters and Nature Spirits making him a perfect addition to family. He's the son of Thalassa and Tartarus with him being the first ever child of the pit. He a slightly twisted sense of humor but knows not to go too far. He is the only known underworld god that can freely travel to and from his father's domain. He also insists that his father had no idea Gaea was using their children to overthrow the Olympians and was told they attacked them unprovoked. And lastly he was able to snatch the Egyptian underworld, the Duat, before it faded with Osiris and now rules it with his closest friend Anubis.

And finally we have Ignatius the God of Fire and Dragons. His mother had the ability to take human form and sired a child from Helios in the hopes it would be powerful. Ignatius retains his mother's ability to take human form but only does so in the city so he doesn't wreck the place. At age fifteen he killed and to the place of Dragon king and hates Dragons with a passion. The first reason is that one killed his mother, the second being the belief Drakons are better than Dragons. He believes that Dragons are better because they are faster, can use magic, and are as intelligent as Humans. Although to be honest most people mistake Drakes, the species both Dragons and Drakons evolved from, for actual Dragons when they are inferior to both species.


	18. Her First Seven Years

-Her First Seven Years-

Percy/Borthomire POV

"That's it Lupa you got it, just one more step." I said and lupa fell into my arms and off the tree branch. I picked her up and spun her around "You did it Lupa."

Lupa was now a little over two and getting quite adventurous. She also seemed to have a slight fear of heights. Today she snuck out of the or at least she thinks she did and climbed a tree. She got maybe five feet off the ground to the first main branch that could hold her and probably me as well then panicked and started calling for me.

I set her on my shoulders and walked back inside, surprisingly she didn't seemed to mind that so much. Once in the house I set her down "Lupa what were you thinking. You know you're not supposed to go outside without me." I said.

"I'm Sowwy." She said looking down.

I just couldn't stay mad at her she was way too cute for her own good, I smiled and ruffled her hair "Just don't go doing that again. Now let's go get some dinner."

"Ya" she yelled and ran to the kitchen. I shook my head and followed her, for better or worse she had my metabolism. For a moment I got a little nostalgic, in two years Lupa had grown a lot and was even starting to look like me. Her formally blond hair was now as black as mine and according to Pisces she even had my grin right down to the large canines. A second later I heard a crash in the kitchen and I knew Lupa must have gotten impatient.

* * *

Zoe POV

"Artemis are you ready to leave?" I asked poking my head in her tent. Artemis was sitting on her bed staring at Percy's necklace. In 400 years Artemis hasn't gone a single day without looking at the necklace, I think it was her way of being close to Percy.

After Hades told us Percy wasn't in the underworld Olympus went nuts. Weeks of debating, yelling, and death threats later the Fates were called in and informed us that he had been removed from the wheel of fate. Supposedly that only happens when a being fades. There was however an offhanded comment about a wheel Destiny.

Hermes had been especially helpful in watching out for us when Artemis couldn't but I think it had to do with his thousand year old crush on her. He hadn't made a move on her yet but he wasn't exactly turning down personal time either.

"Artemis?" I said again finally getting her attention.

"Huh, oh sorry what did you need Zoe." She said putting the necklace back in its velvet cushioned box.

"I was wondering if you were ready? Aphrodite showed ten minutes ago and I with the sole exception of her daughters is really annoying the hunters with her talks about fashion. Why did you invite her anyway?" I asked.

Artemis laughed softly "I invited her because she said her mother taught her how to use a bow. I asked her about her mother and it turned into a bet. I win she talks about her mother, she wins I have to be her dress up doll for a week."

* * *

Lupa POV (Lupa's seventh birthday)

"Happy birthday." Feronia said handing me a bundle of cloth I unwrapped it to see a sheathed dagger with a blue handle.

"Whoa I thought we agreed no weapons." Father said.

"Actually you said no swords, bows, arrows, spears, or axes. You left out daggers, whips, slings, and Scythes." Aunt Gorgona said.

"Thank you auntie Feronia." I said.

Thuke gave me a new book on different Cryptid tribs. (Cryptid being preferred term for monsters) Daddy doesn't understand why I like these books so much but he won't let me even leave the valley unless it's the capitol which he just flashes me to and from. Grandpa Ignatius gave me a coat made from his scales that was super warm if a little wired looking and would grow with me. I call him Grandpa because he smells like old people and smoke.

Pisces, Cuchulain, and Gorgona gave me toys, books, and puzzles. Pidera gave an expandable shield. Zeref couldn't make it but sent a bunch of rare flowers that only grow in the Daut. Tiamat who I like to call Nana gave me a coral necklace.

Most of them had to leave after the gifts but I tried to make sure I thanked them enough like Daddy's always telling me. Thuke and Feronia stayed to play games with me and Daddy for a while but they had to leave to. Then aunt Aphrodite dropped by with a bunch of treats and apologized for being late.

I always like her, she was super nice and made great sweets but liked to talk about boring things like clothes. I mostly just listened to her stories about the outside world and pranks she played on a people (the more tame ones). One of the ones she talked about most was a girl Artemis who sounds like she'd be a lot of fun.

* * *

Artemis POV (summer solstice 3 days later)

I was wandering in the woods when I came upon a clearing in it was Percy standing with a small girl and by his side. I couldn't make out what they looked like other than the girl had black hair while the boy had auburn like me. I tried to run towards them but if anything they seemed to get farther away. Percy turned to face me and held out his hand. I ran as fast as I could yet they only got farther away. Just as they were fading into the background….I woke up.

I looked around finding I'd fallen asleep in an arm chair at my palace "It was just a dream." I said. Gods don't usually dream but when they do we see visions of either what could be or what might have been and with Percy dead I knew it had to be the life I might have had. Me, Percy, and our children.

"Yo Arty you in there". Apollo yelled pounding on my door.

Getting up I walked to the door "What is it?" I said wiping the sleep from my eyes.

"You're supposed to be at the council meeting." He said.

"Oh sorry I just fell asleep." I said.

Apollo flashed us to the throne room "Nice of you to join us." My father said blandly then started the meeting. For the most part it wasn't that different than normal everyone went around saying there was nothing not worthy to report with our domains then we moved on to less important things like a drinking contest between Ares and Apollo which is when I got up to leave.

"Hold on Artemis before we disperse does anyone have something to bring before the council." He said.

"I do." Poseidon replied. "I was talking with my wife the other day and she mentioned that Percy had once said he wanted to make a camp. Place where demigods could train to protect themselves. I think it would be the best way to honor his memory."

"Well I'm for it but who would be teaching them." Athena said.

"I could." Apollo suggested. "After all Arty runs the hunt so it would balance out if I ran the camp."

"No." I said "You'd just spew bad poetry and hit on the girls who don't join my hunters."

"How Dare You." Apollo laughed.

"How about Chiron we already gave him immortality and he's trained quite a few famous heroes." Hermes suggested.

"I like that idea." Hera said.

"But I'm not joking I want to be in charge of the camp" Apollo said that sentence lead to a very long debate that split the council in two. One half wanted Chiron and the other half were saying it was only fair Apollo run the camp since I had the hunt. We tried bringing Hades and Hestia in to break the tie but they chose to stay out of it.

"Okay how about an archery competition." I asked "Winner gets their way."

"Hades no!" Apollo shouted.

"What after all that talk about us both being gods of Archery and therefore equals you don't think you can beat me." I taunted. I merely smirked as he he started stressing out. "Well if you won't fight me how about Aphrodite?" I asked, said love goddess looked up from her nail.

"Say what?" She asked.

"Done." Apollo said grinning like he won some prize.

"You're gonna win an Archery competition so we can have Chiron run the camp." I said.

"You could have asked first." Aphrodite sighed "Let's go get this over with."

We all walked outside and I set up the rules "You get ten shots, highest score wins, 30 sec time limit, and if you split an arrow it doesn't ?"

Both nodded "But this quiver doesn't match my dress." Aphrodite complained then snapped her fingers turning the whole thing pink "Ah that's better."

I resisted the urge to hit her and kept going "Now on 3 one, two, three!" Apollo and Aphrodite let their arrows fly.

"Dang it!" Apollo shouted as his last arrow split his one of his previous. "Well at least I know Aphrodite can't beat that. Guess I win." He said grinning at me. I grinned back and pointed at Aphrodite's target or more specifically her perfect score. "B-But how I've never seen her train a single day in her life."

"That's because I incorporate my training into my everyday tasks." The love goddess said.

Apollo just looked at me blankly "She managed to turn shopping and cosmetic care into a training regimen that somehow works. I didn't believe her either till we had a hunt competition four years back and she almost beat me. After that I tripled my training routine."

* * *

Percy/Borthomire POV

Today I took Lupa to a beach, for the first time, far away from any mortals and deep in Tiamat's territory. In just three hours she was able to run me ragged and I let her play in the water while I rested. "Daddy Daddy look!" Lupa called excitedly. I sat up and looked at my daughter standing in the small waves with water swirling around her and my jaw dropped.

Not only was she controling water for the first time she had manifested the blessing of Amphitrite. At that moment I felt so proud of my daughter for using an ability as difficult to control as my mother's blessing on instinct. Then I began to wonder what would happen if my mother or father sensed it. "Lupa come out of the water." I shouted.

Looking down Lupa trudged over slightly teary eyed "I'm sorry Daddy I didn't mean to do it it just happened." She cried.

"Lupa look at me." I said putting my hand under her chin so she had to. "I'm not mad this is an amazing gift you've received. We can even start training to use it tomorrow if you wish. I just didn't want your grandparents to sense it and come here looking for answers to questions that they can be asking yet."

Lupa nodded "Will I ever get to meet them?" she asked drying her tears. "You talk about Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Triton, and your sister's Zoe and Thalia all the time but will I get to meet them?"

"Absolutely." I said ruffling her hair. "And I promise they'll be as excited to meet you as you are to meet them." Lupa smiled and hugged me tightly around the neck. A few seconds later the blessing wore off a she slumped in my arms to tired to move, chuckling I flashed us back home and set her in her bed.

Please review


	19. An Unexpected Reunion

-An Unexpected Reunion-

Percy POV

"Daddy are you sure I'm holding this right?" Lupa asked lifting the sword I gave her.

"Yes Lupa, it might feel a little weird at first but you'll get used to it now follow me and do what I do." I said working Lupa through the stances. "Loosen your joints, you'll get hurt if you stay so tense."

"Yes Daddy." She said starting again. I gave her tips and corrected her stance for the next two hours then called for a stop.

"That's enough for today." I said. "How about we take a quick bath and I'll scrounge up up some dinner we can have your favorite."

"Yay!" Lupa cheered running off into the house. I found myself smiling after her. She was just growing up so fast she was nine now and a goddess. Surprised? Me too! Apparently Pisces decided since Lupa was my daughter she should be a goddess.

She asked all the other council members if they thought the same and they said yes. After that she convinced her husband to grab a fruit from Hemera's garden and gave it to Lupa for her birthday. Lupa ate it not even knowing what it was and poof my daughter is a nine year old goddess.

Pisces got an earful but in truth got off easy since she thought everyone had agreed to make her a goddess and no one was really upset about it except that she didn't ask me first. The Fates dropped by to see the new goddess and decided that because she was so young she'd have to learn her domain the same way normal gods do. Turns out those who are born gods have to figure out their domains on their own.

"Dad you have to take a bath too." Lupa yelled. "Oh and can we play tackle tag after dinner."

Behind me I heard a few nature spirits giggling "Note to self spend more time teaching Lupa what is and is not ok to say in front of others." I said walking inside. "Sure we can play tag."

* * *

Lupa POV (age 12)

I slammed into Daddy's side pushing deeper into the clearing "Your it!" I shouted running into the forest surrounding our home.

"Not for long." He called or should I say howled. Things get really confusing when you can understand humans and animals. In his wolf form dad easily caught up to me but I ducked as he sailed over me.

I ran straight at him "Gonna have to try better than that." I said jumping off his head onto cliff farther up the mountain.

"Oh it's on now!" He said taking the long way up. I laughed and kept going heading out of the valley. I took a few short cuts I know and got down the other side of the mountain. When I was younger I used these same routes to try and sneak out and see the mortal cities but my father caught me every time saying I wasn't old enough yet.

I took a right to avoid the swamp when I heard a roar "What is that?" changing route I ran towards the sound. Another roar cut through the air and this time I could see it's source, a Drakon over 100 feet long. An arrow pierced the drakons eye and it crumbled to dust. I glance around trying to find who killed it and saw a girl with auburn hair collapsed on the ground.

I ran to her and checked her pulse, she was alive but exhausted and her left leg looked pretty bad as well. I heard a rustle behind me and turned to see my father coming out of the woods "Lupa what was tha…" He stop as soon as he saw the girl and then he seem to...tremble? I couldn't quite figure it out I've seen him both curious and extremely scared, usually for me, but this was something else entirely.

"Hurry let's get her back to the house." He said and I help set her on his back so she'd be easier for him to carry.

* * *

Artemis POV

I groaned in pain as I awoke, my whole body ached from exhaustion. I glanced around the room a noticed things seemed to be a bit out of proportion and by that I mean it was way to big to belong to a present but it didn't seem as well furnished as a nobel. On the walls there was a large number of scrolls and the newer kind called books that Athena was so fond of, so my rescuer was a scholar maybe.

A door on the left side of the room slowly opened to reveal a black haired and blue eyed girl. "Oh good you're up." She smiled carrying a basket of clean bandages, the smile seemed familiar to me but my focus was drawn to her unnaturally large canines. "How are you feeling?" She asked.

"I'm ok." I said "Just a little sore, where am I by way."

"You're in my father's forest north Corinth, we found you out in the woods and brought you back here, I'm Lupa by the way." She said taking some of the bandages off my arm. "Wow father was right a little ambrosia and nectar healed you up real quick."

Ambrosia and nectar are they gods? "Who is your father?" I asked. "His name is Borthomire he's the immediate ruler of the Forest's from Corinth to Pella." She said.

Corinth to Pella! That's a fifth of Greece! "What do you mean immediate ruler?" I asked staying calm.

"He only deals with that Area on a daily bases but he technically rules most of Europe, a little past the Asian border, and the top tenth of Africa past that he has some influence but he can't really rule it very well." She said finishing with my bandages. That's larger than even my hunting grounds.

"How? I would think I'd have heard of him if he that much influence." I inquired.

"That's because father rules the animals and nature spirits not the humans so he typically isn't that well known to them." She said. "Now I need to go get him he wanted to know when you were awake."

Unsure of who or what I'd be dealing with I looked around for any weapon of some sort. On the nightstand next to the bed was a dagger in a decorative sheath. Moving quickly I unsheathed the dagger and pulled it under the covers. The door opened again and Lupa walked in and behind her was a horse sized wolf, not a traveling horse a war horse sized wolf.

"Lupa get behind me." I said quietly.

Lupa glanced back at the wolf and laughed "Oh you don't need to worry about him this is my father."

"Lupa I'd like to talk to her alone if you please besides you still have chores to do." He said in a series of low barks and growls. 'Does he seriously expect her to understand animal speak' I thought.

"Yes father." Lupa sighed and walked out closing the door behind her.

"Hello lady Artemis." Borthomire said.

"I'm sorry I don't und-"

"Don't lie Lady Artemis I know full well you can understand me." He said.

"Who are you?" I growled.

"My name is Borthomire and I'm….one sec." He said kicking to door behind him.

I heard Lupa yelp on the other side "Fine." Lupa sighed and walked away.

"Now I am Borthomire guardian of this forest." He said

"What are you." I demanded "You not a normal wolf and you don't quite feel like a god."

"Well you're right I'm a werewolf but you're also wrong because I am a god as well." He said.

I cursed myself and clenched the dagger "What do you want with me servant of Lycon." I spat.

Borthomire made a strange rumbling sound that I think was him laughing "I am no servant of Lycon although he did try to subjugate me. I killed him and took his title of wolf king. He's lost so much respect since then. He's become more of a joke than anything else really."

"You mentioned you were a god what is your domain." I asked, 'this would explain why his pack has been only six strong the last two times I've seen him'.

"I'm High god of the Wild, Pan was a good friend of mine and gave me his domain when he faded." Borthomire said.

"Oh!" I said sadly, I may not have been close with Pan but I did mourn his passing.

"Wait didn't you want talk to me or something." I asked.

"Ah yes." He said "It's about my daughter Lupa. For years she has begged me to let her see the world. I've tried to sate that desire with the books she loves so much but I can see she grows more restless by the day. She may be a goddess but she is still very young, only 12 years old, and far too trusting. Plus though she isn't a werewolf herself others would kill her for being the daughter of one."

"And how do I fit into all this?" I asked.

"I'd like to have Lupa join the hunt if you don't mind." He said. I didn't really know what to say, my mouth just kept opening and closing like a fish. "I can assure you that she is still a maiden if that's what you're worried about."

"No that's not it" I said. "But why would you trust me with your daughter?"

"Because I know how you treat your hunters. You treat them like your own daughters and I know you'll keep her safe. Besides despite my best efforts and her many aunts Lupa has never had a strong maternal figure or siblings. Plus then she could finally get her wish to travel the world like I did in my youth and I know you'd make a fine mother for her." He said.

I fought down a small blush at his praise and really thought about what he was asking of me. "Fine I'll do it." I said "But she'll have to follow the same rules as my hunters." Borthomire nodded.

Please review


	20. Back to the Hunt

-Back to the Hunt-

Artemis POV

"Are you ready to meet your new sisters Lupa?" I asked.

"Oh ya!" She shouted excitedly.

That was something I was growing to like about Lupa, she was just so enthusiastic about everything. It took two days to get back to camp which was astonishing because most gods would take twice that to get here on foot, she was much faster than most gods maybe half of Hermes and mine top speed. She was also somewhat gifted with a sword and seemed really at home in the forest. Not really surprising for a daughter of the wild. And she was also extremely close with her father, I don't think she would've come with me if I didn't tell her she could still see him from time to time.

As we walked down to camp the my other hunters ran out to meet us "Lady Artemis." Zoe called.

"We were worried when you didn't come back a week ago like you said you would." Thalia said once they got closer

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to worry you all. I was injured, Lupa here and her father were kind enough to help me." I said. "And Lupa here has decided to join the hunt."

"Is it the usual circumstances?" Zoe asked, referring to the common case of our hunters coming from bad families.

"No, not as far as I could." I said.

"Well welcome to the hunt Lupa my name's Thalia."

"As is in the daughter of Zeus sister of Percy, prince of the sea!" Lupa asked going wide eyed

"Um ya." Thalia said slightly embarrassed by Lupa's enthusiasm.

"My Dad has told me all about you and Zoe nightshade and the other hunters who fought with him during the giant war." Lupa said excitedly.

"How did he learn about that?" Thalia asked "Zeus had every survivor of that war sworn to secrecy how did you hear about it."

"Father only made mortals take oaths all immortals were thought to prideful to share that we needed help." I said. "But I don't remember your father being there Lupa."

"So he's a god?" Zoe asked.

"Ya he just doesn't like to be known most of his stuff is done on the sly." Lupa said "That's probably why you don't remember him during the war besides the Olympians weren't the only gods one with Giant enemies."

"What do you mean besides the Olympians?" Tetha asked, she was a daughter of Athena.

"Lupa's father is what's called a rogue god seeing as he doesn't belong to a pantheon." I said "They tend to be gods who don't like to the constraint of the council, others just like being their own boss, and some just prefer to be alone."

"Oh so what's your father's name." Tetha asked.

"He's Borthomire High god of the Wild." Lupa said happily "He's got other domains to but that's the one most people focus on."

"What's a High god?" Thalia asked.

"No idea it's just what Daddy friends call him." Lupa said.

Thalia turned to me for answers "I never heard of a high god before, I'll go ask Athena and you help Lupa get settled." I said Thalia nodded and I flashed to my sister's palace.

* * *

"Hello Artemis." Athena said not looking up from her book. "What can I do for you?"

"What makes you think I'm here for something?" I asked.

"You usually send an IM ahead of time if you want to 'hang out' as Apollo would say and when you don't there's a 85% chance you want something." She said sporting a grin.

"You know I really hate it when you do that." I deadpanned "And yes I do need something, What do you know about High gods."

That grabbed her attention "Where did you hear that." Athena asked completely serious.

"When I was on my last solo hunting trip I got injured, a rogue god and his daughter helped me and now she's in the hunt. Both of them referred to him as a High god." I said.

"You're sure?" She asked.

"Yes now what does it mean." I said getting annoyed.

"Okay there's four levels of godhood. The lowest and weakest of them are the minor gods, all you need to be a part of that group is a domain. Then there's us the major gods which is decided by a number of factors like how long they can hold their true form, how fast their power can recharge, and how much power you can access without entering your true form." Athena said writing it out on a chalkboard.

"There's the primordials which are the most powerful of all the gods and are completely unbeatable in their own domains. High gods are the ones who fill the gap between the Major gods and the Primordials. High gods are by far the smallest of all four categories and the most varied in strength, some are merely three times that of a base level Major god while others are as strong as Typhon. Based on all the records I've been able to find there's only about 8 High god's total well 7 since we know Fenrir faded during the Norse apocalypse." Athena said.

"This is probably the first sighting of a High god since the Titans took over." She said getting excited "What did he look like, how did he act, did you get a name?"

"Um his name is Borthomire. He was a wolf. He has green eyes, black fur, and really laid back to the point of seeming lazy." I said "And why are there so few."

"It's because of how you become one." Athena said thumbing through a book "A god's power is decided by how well he or she connects to her domain(s) minor gods just barely connect, major gods have a strong connection. Primordials literally are their domains but their chosen by the first god Chaos to maintain certain functions of the universe. Annake can to if the gods have the right domains. As far as we know only Phanes and Uranus has ever faded and their duties were picked up by the other Primordials."

Athena growled in frustration and picked up another book "High gods either have a perfect connection to their domains or have domains that can merge so to speak. Like if you suddenly gained Apollo's domain over the sun. Instead of just gaining the power from the domain they make each other more powerful. it's like if you added 1 + 1 but it came out to 4 instead of 2. And only specific combinations will do this, sun and moon, Heros and Destiny, Sea and Sky the list goes on but it never happens naturally one of the domains have to be gifted to the god. And since gods are only willing to do that when their fading so it's super rare."

I gave a slight nod in understanding "Did he have both eyes?" she asked.

"Ya." I said somewhat confused.

"Okay that rules out Odin he gave up one of his eyes." She said scratching her head. "Do you know what his Domain(s) were?"

"The Wild apparently Pan gifted it to him before he faded." I said.

"Really is borthomire a nature spirit." Athena asked.

"No he's a werewolf." I said.

"Ok so giving a werewolf his domain wouldn't just make him a god upon receiving his domain he's not a nature spirit so he'd need to be a god already. Besides Pan wouldn't give his power to someone he didn't trust he'd make sure Borthomire would mentally be able to handle that kind of power without cracking." Athena said.

"You have to get me more information about him this is a whole new High god that we know nothing about." Athena said practically glowing with excitement.

"I don't know sis he really seemed to like his privacy." I said.

"You said that his daughter joined the hunt were they close? You could let her visit him and tag along or just ask her." She pushed.

"Fine I'll do what I can but I'm not going to make Lupa miserable to sait your curiosity." I said

"Good enough." Athena said grabbing a new chalkboard and writing Borthomire as the top with four columns labeled 'domains, children, skills, and habits'.

* * *

Lupa POV

After Artemis left Thalia and Tetha showed me around camp and I tried to keep the questions to a minimum "After we get you set up with a tent and a bunk mate we can start training, have you ever used a bow?" She asked.

"I begged my Dad to teach me once but he said it was too dangerous for him to teach me and that I should ask my aunt." I said.

"Did you?" Thalia asked.

"No I was too dead set on having Daddy teach and I just forgot about it after a while." I said.

"Why do you do that?" Tetha asked.

"I'm not sure what you mean." I replied.

"You call him Daddy when you're like twelve most girls stop when their younger." Tetha said.

"I talk like that because it makes Daddy happy. He tries to hid it but there are nights I see his staring up at the sky with this really sad look on his face and when I call him Daddy he smiles real big." I said.

I tripped over something and fell to the ground "Careful newbie." a girl laughed.

I looked up to see three girls with pale gray eyes standing there and grinning, I went to tackle one but Thalia held me back "Don't do it it's not worth it." she said.

"I'd listen to your friend if I were you, children of lower gods should learn their place. Oh and Thalia I don't think we'll be able to do the laundry today, take care of it." The middle one said as they walked away.

"Are you just gonna let them talk to you like that?" I asked.

"There's nothing we can do they're children of the Fates. If we so much say anything against them they can make stuff happen that we can't prove or avoid. Artemis could stop them but someone would have to die to do so so keep you head down till me or Zoe figure something out." Thalia said.

Please review


	21. Meeting Borthomire

-Meeting Borthomire-

Artemis POV

"Hey Lupa what are you reading?" I asked taking a seat next to her. She had been in the hunt for a couple months and over all had been fitting in well. Thalia and Zoe had somewhat taken her under their wing. And she seemed to really be at odds with the children of the Fates Clara, Lena, and Alice.

"A book my Uncle gave me about Cryptids and their tribal life." She said.

"What are Cryptids?" I asked.

"Daddy said the Olympians call them monsters but they prefer to call themselves Cryptids." She said turning the page.

"What's this about fallen states?" I inquired.

"Most Cryptids have a form they're born in and remain that way till they spill innocent blood. Then they change and become monstrous and that's usually when they show up on you radar." She said simply.

"You seem to know a lot about monst...I mean Cryptids. Would you mind teaching me about them?" I requested.

"Sure." Lupa said with her usual enthusiasm. "What do you want to know first?"

"How about what happens when they become monstrous." I suggested.

"Well they really just become ugly so to speak. A Cyclops normally looks, well normal, but if they kill an innocent their face swells up like they've been stung by dozens of bees and their teeth become crooked, rotted, and and yellow. Sometimes they even grow horns. Werewolves become like Lycon, you know fur that looks like shadows and beady red eyes. I can write it all out for you, it'd help tell an innocent being from a guilty one."

-3 hours later-

"Wow I can't believe how much I didn't know." I said aloud. We'd talked about different customs, life styles, even prefered diets for over a dozen species. And it was staggering how much this felt like learning about a new civilization rather than cold blooded killers but that wasn't even the second biggest shock of the day.

The first was that Monsters/Cryptids and nature spirits have their own underworld run by a god named Zeref and his potogie Anubis a refuge from when the Egyptian Pantheon was destroyed during the rule of the Primordials. The second was that these 'Cryptid criminals' that I've spent most of my life hunting is not even a tenth of the total population. How are so many going unnoticed?

"Are you kidding this is just the basics of the more human like races." Lupa said "It gets even crazier once you get into the more beast like Cryptids."

"We'll have to talk about this another day but I've got to introduce you to Athena she'd love to know this stuff." I said.

Lupa smiled and ran off to do her chores and I decided to take a break as I'd been up since 4 am and now it was almost 7 in the evening. Hermes flashed in few moments later "Sup Artemis." He said.

"Hey Hermes." I replied "What can I help you with?" I asked giving him a small smile. Hermes had become a good friend in the last 400 years and had helped me deal with Percy's death.

"I just dropped by to let you know that father wants you to check out reports of 'strange creatures' up near the Saxon tribes in Europe (AN: I don't know if the Saxon were around yet but let's say they are.)

"Why so far away?" I asked frowning.

"The rumors are really disturbing. These monsters seem to be almost completely rabid and growing fast." He said, groaned not looking forward the long walk. I love to travel but a forced march of 37 girls meant a lot of complaining for me. "I found a bunch of those wild truffles you like much." He said holding up a small leather bag.

"You remembered." I sighed with a smile taking the bag. "Thank you."

"No problem." He said flashing out.

I called all the hunters together and informed them that we would leaving on a long trip soon and that we'd be breaking camp in the morning "Lupa can I talk to you for a moment?" I asked after I dismissed the rest.

"Sure." She said cocking her head to the side and for a moment I saw Percy standing next to her.

I shook my head not wanting to deal with the heartache right now, I may have learned to deal with his death but that didn't mean I was over it. "I was hoping you could lead us back to your father's valley. Our next hunt will take us up into Europe and I wanted to see if he had any information that could help us."

"Um couldn't I just go alone?" She asked nervously "Daddy doesn't really like visitors."

"No it would be best if your sister's heard the information with their own ears." I said firmly.

"Okay but just follow my lead it'll be very bad if one of us attacks." Lupa quietly as she walked away.

* * *

Two days later we were at the edge of the valley "How did we miss this!" Thalia exclaimed "We passed right by here not three days ago how did the scouts not notice a gigantic valley."

"The valley is protected by my father even gods would have loads of trouble getting finding it without father's permission to enter." Lupa said.

We descended a little ways into the valley and a couple nymphs melted out of the trees "Halt." The tallest one said "Please state your reason for coming."

"We're here to see my father." Lupa said.

"Princess Lupa I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." The nymph said. "Then I'll give you the brief version. Do not draw your weapons the beings who live here in this valley have taken a vow of peace. Borthomire will avenge any who you harm unprovoked."

Zoe started to retort but I put my hand up silencing "Will be on our best behavior." I promised.

The nymphs melt back into the trees and we continued our trek into the valley. "Why did you just accept that?" Zoe asked "You've never let other gods make threats like that before."

"Borthomire isn't like most gods I'd need the help of at least two other gods to even stand a chance. From what I learned the last time I was here he's seems to be a just man, at least with Lupa with us." I said calmly. Zoe paled at my words at least she understood the danger.

As we neared the stone spire that Borthomire had carved a home out of I began to hear the sounds of swords clashing. When we finally made it to the main valley it looked vastly different from the last time I was here there were a couple hundred Cryptids, mainly cyclopes, walking around carrying building supplies. Lupa was right, though I could tell what race each one belonged to, they all looked fairly tame and nothing like the monsters we usually hunt.

Near the house there was a man sparing against four other men. I couldn't see his face for he wore a cloak with the hood up that cover all but his mouth. A man with six arms glance our way and his face paled. "Borthomire!" He shouted, the cloaked man turned to see us coming and I guessed that this was his human form. Admittedly when I saw he was shirtless I got a little 'hot under the collar' as Aphrodite would say.

Borthomire ran out to meet us and the other Cryptids moved behind him, most likely for protection. "Go back to work." He called over his shoulder "I'll keep an eye on them."

"Daddy." Lupa called giving him was equated to a flying tackle hug.

"It's good to see you to my daughter." He said giving her a very toothy grin.

"What's with all the construction material?" Lupa asked, the other hunters who all had their hands on their weapons were shocked to see the completely lack of fear from Lupa with all the Monsters around.

"I'm sure you've know about what happened in the city of Talmine." He said.

"From what we heard it was attacked twice by some kind of creatures about 5-6 months ago." I replied "The first time around 30 men were killed and several women were traumatized. In the second attack only a portion the traumatized women were harmed, no trace was ever found."

"That's a fairly basic overview." Borthomire said. "Lycon in his desperation to gain more power has resorted to attacking small towns and letting his servants rape the women. The men are killed and so are the mothers once the kids are born to insure total loyalty to Lycon.

I've been trying to track him down and end it but Talmine surprised the both of us in killing Lycon and scattering what was left till he reformed. They had heard of the other villages being attacked and a small group of soldiers decided to stock up on silver. I sent a small group out to monitor the situation, mainly if they need support.

After a few months it became apparent that close to 40 girls had been impregnated. The reactions greatly varied a few committed suicide, a couple were killed by their families, and about half intended to kill the child once it was born.

The rest decided that they would keep and raise the child as best they could. The citizens of Talmine were so angry at their choice they decided to burn them. At this point I stepped in and offered my help but only 7 accepted it. I brought them here and now we're building them a home." He said.

"Why didn't you just help the rest anyway." Tiana accused.

"Because ancient law forbids it." I replied. "In cases like this we can only help those who want our help. May I see the girls?"

Borthomire nodded and lead us past this house in the opposite direction of the construction "Why do creature here look so different than they normally do?" Thalia asked while Lupa animatedly told her father all about her time at the hunt.

"It's because they haven't killed an innocent human yet." I replied. "The ones that come here are innocent beings looking for a safe place to live."

A few minutes later we came upon a small clearing where 7 girls were were sitting on the grass while 9 kids crawled on the grass "What is this?" I asked. "These kids look to be almost a year old they shouldn't even be born yet." The women looked up and started collecting their kids.

"Werewolf blood." Borthomire said. "Shortens pregnancy and the kids will reach maturity faster."

Nodding I walked over to the girls who immediately started backing "It's okay I just want to make sure they're healthy." I said, the girls were still hesitant but a nod from Borthomire was able to calm them down. As I checked on each of the kids I couldn't help but think about how weird it felt that these girls trusted a werewolf more than me.

Actually on that note why did he trust me so much first his daughter now those under his care. Why did he put so much faith in me we've literally met only twice. To be honest I was beginning to question even that his voice, his mannerisms, his smile I could have sworn I've seen it all before.

"Triplets?" I asked the last girl. She nodded and smile down at the one pulling one her hair. "Well I can't find anything wrong. With any of them." The girls quietly thanked me a swiftly left.

"Thank you for showing them to me." I said.

"No problem." Borthomire said with a smile. "Why did you come here anyway. I highly doubt that it was just because Lupa missed her old man."

"Yes I was actually hoping to get some advice. Lupa said your reach extends to much of Europe and I wanted information about of series of creature sightings amongst the tribes up there." I said.

"Your lucky I happen to know what your talking about, there are a lot of creature sightings among humans. I don't know much but it started almost two years ago a couple people disappeared off the street. Not just humans my subjects as well and it keep happening all over in cases of one or two spread out.

Now I didn't pay much mind at first because it's not unheard of for there to be accidental deaths when hunting, then Zeref sends me a letter saying almost none of the none of them are dead. So I sent a search party up and they came back and said that all the trails they found were cold but definite signs of a struggle. Then last month a report came through of entirely new creatures showed up and attacked.

One in particular, a snake like being with bat wings and one eye the size of a house, a cyclops survivor caught a very unique tattoo on it's left shoulder and identified as the one his brother had in the same place. I don't know what is happening up there but it's without a doubt evil in it's purest form.

I will be heading up myself in 3 weeks time to deal with the problem myself. Assuming till then you'll be pretty much on your own till then. But if you need help go to the mountain outside the town of Trier. I have a good friend there named Ignatius he should be able to provide you with at least some help." He warned.

"Understood." I said.

Please review.


	22. Europe

-Europe-

Artemis POV

The trip to Europe was uneventful which was nice since it gave me some time to think about what I'd learned about Borthomire. He lived alone and had extreme sword skills which wasn't all that surprising considering how good Lupa was with a blade.

The creatures in his valley practically worshiped him which also wasn't very surprising. He did a lot of stuff by hand even though he could've used his powers or even order someone to do it for him. This suggests he had a certain degree of humility and he didn't really seem to worry that we were there which indicates either a fair amount of trust or he's simply strong enough not to care. My guess is it's the latter of the two.

Lupa also let it slip that her father was the god of Destiny a force equal to the Fates themselves and the fate triplets didn't take it so well. After we left I prodded her a little more Lupa described Borthomire's relationship with the Fates like it was a scale. Borthomire on one end and the Fates on the other. The Fates and Borthomire are completely equal in power preventing one from pushing the other around and thus keeping the world in balance.

As gods have a certain amount of control over their domains Borthomire uses Destiny as a power or strength you're born with. The Fates choose to make their domain a series of preordained challenges one will go through over their entire life. How a being reacts to these said gifts and challenges is up to them. It's a system the Fates and Borthomire worked out to prevent war and it only works on mortals. That's way they are judged on the decisions they made after they die instead of the gifts and challenges they had.

They can affect gods if they are in agreement which results in an Ancient law. From what I understand the Primordial Ananke created the Ancient laws and those laws can be altered if Borthomire and the Fates agree on the changes. Sadly they almost never do so such changes are beyond rare.

The more I learned about Borthomire the more I felt I should know him. Before we left he pulled Lupa aside and talked to about what she might see and what it meant to be a hero. That glory meant nothing if it resulted in the death of an innocent. That killing should only be used as a last resort and so on.

What he said and the way he said it felt so familiar. Everything he did from a small chuckle to a simple hand gesture practically echoed in my mind like I should know it and it was driving me crazy.

"Lady Artemis there's a town coming up." Zoe warned.

I considered going around the town but decided that we were close enough to our destination that we might be able do some recon. "We keep going." I said. "We need to see what they know."

We slowed our pace as we reached the town. A simple wooden fence was built around the town and a sloppy one at that, they must have been in a hurry. The posts looked like they had been cut from whole trees.

"Halt!" a man shouted appearing on the wall bow in hand. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"We're hunters sent to deal with the beasts that have been plaguing you." I said.

"Female hunters you have to be joking." he said.

Behind me I heard Zoe growl and I had to bit my tongue to prevent myself from saying something I'd regret, we needed to get in there. "Lighten up Belfre." Another man said, he had a handsome face and orange eyes. "What are your names?"

"My name is Artemis and these are my hunters." I said.

"Never heard of you sorry." The new man said.

I did my best to suppress the annoyance rising in my chest, no god likes being told that they've never been heard of. Lupa strode out in front of us with this weird look on her face "Borthomire sent us to help." she said.

I saw the second man's eyes widen "Let them in." He said.

"What?" Belfre asked. "Let them in? Because some guy named Borthomire sent them."

"If you don't want to trust them then trust me." He said, Belfre nodded slowly and disappeared.

In front of us the wall slowly opened up to reveal a gate right in front of us "Hurry up and get in." Belfre said.

Once inside the orange eyed man ran to greet us "Thank you for coming my name is Zayden." He said. "I can't say how grateful I am that you're here. Is lord Borthomire sending others? We've had our backs against the walls for months."

"Borthomire said he'd be here himself in three well two weeks now to deal with the situation." I said.

Zayden smiled but before he could say anything another voice boomed through the air "Zayden!" I turned to see rather tall, buff, and slightly pudgy man striding towards us "What do you think you're doing letting people in. They could be here to let those monsters in. They could be shape shifters for all you know."

"Lord Dreyer they came to help how can we turn them away." Zayden replied.

"You've been nothing but trouble since the day you came to this village." Dreyer growled "And ever since you came back we've plagued with these beasts. First the dragon you allegedly killed then these monstrosities."

"Lord Dreyer maybe we should trust Zayden. Even if he didn't kill the Dragon he did drive it off and rescued your daughter. And without his help we would have never been able to get this fence up in time." One of the guards stated.

Dreyer glanced around seeing many nods from the villagers he gritted his teeth "Fine they can stay the night but you Zayden must put them up and them must gone in the morning. If they are hunters surviving out there shouldn't be too difficult for them."

Zayden turned to us as Dreyer stocked off "Sorry about him he can be a bit of hot head when under stress." He said nervously "Uhh you should probably follow me."

We took a short walk to a small home on the outer edge of town. "So I take it you're not very popular?" I said.

"Well when I was younger I was a bit of a trouble maker, Being different can be somewhat hard to deal with." He replied.

"Hey what did the dragon look like?" Lupa asked I glanced at her only to see a big grin on her face.

"Bright orange, 40 feet long, 60 foot wingspan and armed to the teeth." Zayden said with pride. Not surprising it sounds like the dragon was very strong.

"Well I'm glad things worked out between you and lord Dreyer's daughter." Lupa said as we walked into Zayden's home.

"H-how did you know?" Zayden asked.

"My father is Borthomire and I spent a lot of time studying cryptids including Dragons." She said with a grin.

"Is there something you'd care to share with the rest of us?" Thalia asked.

"Dragon don't kidnap humans to eat them, they're choosing a spouse." Lupa said, confusing the rest of us.

Zayden sighed "What she means is that dragons can take human form. Well any species technically, I was born a half dragon but half dragons only remain that way till we turn 16 years old then we become full dragons and loose other form(s). Dragons can take the form of a species like humans if a member of that race falls in love with them. But it only works once regardless of if you're born a full or half breed. Back when I lived here as a half breed Lucile and I were childhood sweethearts, and I couldn't really picture myself with anyone else."

As those words left his mouth just about every jaw in the room dropped except for Zayden and Lupa who had an amused grin. "Um then why did you kidnap her, couldn't you have just talked to her or something." Nida a daughter of Aphrodite said.

"Not really." Zayden said rubbing the back of his head "When I'm in my dragon form I view the world the same as a dragon would and Dragons have very different courting rituals than humans. Kidnapping the bride is meant to prove you strength by not just defeating rival males but her entire family including her father who would be a seasoned fighter. Once the girl is taken back to the male's home he typically showers her with gifts to impress her. You know jewels or pelts of powerful animals. For Lucile I collected extremly rare plants as her grandmother was a Dryad."

"I would have been fighting these monsters myself but Dreyer has everyone so scared that I can't even risk sneaking away. But now that you're here I can leave with you to help you fight."

"What about Lucile?" I asked, while making a mental note to make sure Lupa met with Athena. Olympus was practically blind to a whole nother world right now.

"Me and her father agreed that it would be best if she stayed at his mansion with his guard there to protect her if need be."

Please review

AN: sorry it took so long didn't have much time these last two weeks.


	23. The threat

**-The threat-**

.

Zoe POV

"Everybody Make sure you're ready because I have a feeling we won't have any rest once we leave." Artemis said. Our stay in this town had been uneventful other than the not so stealthy soldiers watching us.

Zayden stood off to the side having apparently noticed that most of the hunters didn't really like having boys around. He had a double bladed axe that seemed slightly too big for him but he hefted it with ease. He and Lupa were excitedly conversing about her coat that seemed to be woven from liquid gold and rubies.

Turning to the guard at the gate he gave me a sympathetic "I'm sorry for all the trouble Dreyer's causing you he's usually a nice guy. It's just all this craziness lately has put him very on edge." He said and I nodded back in understanding "Now when we open up the gate you and your group are gonna have to get through as fast as you can. We probably won't be able to open it again till after the creature are dealt with our best hunters barely came back alive last time."

"Understood, we're ready when you are." Artemis said walking up to us.

The guard signaled his partner and together they opened the gate. "So which way do you recommend boy." Phoebe spat. Inwardly I sighed Phoebe was always our biggest man hater and if she starts up now it's going to be a very long hunt.

"We should go north that's where they were first seen near the earl's fortress." Zayden said.

4 hours later -

"I thought you said these things were all over the place" Phoebe whined "and so far we haven't seen or heard a single thing."

That last part caught my attention 'That's right we haven't heard any all day. Where are all bugs and animals the shouldn't be this quiet unless…' Thalia and I looked at each other but before either of us could say anything a twig snapped. Acting on instinct I shouted "Everybody back to back!"

Following my orders everyone got back to back with their partner except the fate daughters who formed a triangle and Zayden and Artemis who simply stood alone. For maybe a millisecond I thought it might have been nothing and how embarrassing would this be if that was the case.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, it wasn't a false alarm. To my left a bear size being with three heads much like Cerberus but with way too many legs burst out of the woods and came charging at me. My tent partner and I fired our first arrows simultaneously piercing the left and right most heads. The beast slowed down for a moment before resuming its charge. I being the fastest of the us two fired a second arrow into its middle head.

The beast dropped head or heads first and skidded to a halt a few feet in front of us. I turned the other members of the hunt finishing off the rest of the creature. There was a humanoid bat, a lion like minator, a centipede over 40 feet long and 3 and a half feet tall, and a rather large serpent with two viper heads easily 30 feet long.

"What are these things?" I asked no one in particular.

"They're like copies of the most famous monsters." One Nicole said.

"Um is anyone else noticing that these things are not turning to dust like they're supposed to?" Thalia asked.

"Does that mean they're still alive?" A newer hunter Amy asked.

"No they're dead trust me." Ruta daughter of Thanatos said.

"To be safe we should probably burn them." Artemis added. 20 minutes later all the corpses were nothing but ash courtesy of Zayden who could apparently still breath fire in his human form.

"You know these things were a lot easier to beat then I thought they would be." Amy said.

"It's only because of our numbers." I said. "Had we had 6-8 members like a stander hunting party this battle would have gone vastly different." I cast a questioning glance to Lady Artemis as to what we should do now.

"We should keeping moving. If we can find the source tonight we can devise a plan of attack for tomorrow and see what we're up against." She said. As we resumed our march the tracks were much easier to follow and extremely frequent, there was simply no way those five creatures could have caused all this not even two dozen. The farther north we traveled the more the undergrowth was trampled.

"Do you hear that?" Lupa asked.

"Hear what?" I replied.

"Can't you hear they're calling for help." Lupa said suddenly bolted off in front of us.

"Lupa wait!" Thalia called.

"I'll get her the rest of you catch up when you can." Artemis said following after her.

Five minutes later the rest of us caught up to them. Lupa was being held by Lady Artemis, near a cliff, with her hands over her ears crying and saying over and over 'make it stop, please make it stop.' In the background I could hear what seemed like hundreds of howls.

"What's going on?" Thalia asked.

Completely ignoring Thalia's question Artemis turn to Zayden "Get Lupa out of here." The man nodded in understanding and picked up Lupa before taking off the way we had just come.

"Lady please what is going!?" Thalia half yelled.

Artemis didn't answer right away and instead looked in the direction our sister had just left. "You can't hear it." She began slowly turning to us "To you those howls are nothing more than noises made by dumb animals. Even the few of you who are nature spirits can understand what they're saying but Lupa can as easily as you understand what I say."

"I don't understand." Amy said.

Artemis merely snapped her fingers and suddenly the howls were replaced with heart wrenching screams of agony. I couldn't help it, I felt to my knees covering my ears and trying to block it out "This is what those howls sound like to Lupa she can't even block it out, I imagine even Zayden can understand some of it."

As quickly as the screams came they faded back into the howling they once were. "Borthomire was right whatever is going on here is unnatural, evil, and most importantly much bigger than we originally thought." Milady breathed looking down the cliff.

I walked closer to the edge and gasped. Down in the valley was not three or four dozen creatures like I was expecting, there was more like three or four hundred. "I guess we might be taking Hermes up on that offer of help after all." I said.

Please review


	24. Legends

-Legends-

Artemis POV

"Are you certain this is wise?" Zoe asked. "I mean I know Borthomire trusts this man but this Ignatious is a rogue god we have never encountered. We've already called Hermes do we really need more."

"If Hermes could flash directly to our location I wouldn't even bother, but with the Olympians still recovering from the giant war our influence isn't nearly as large as is once was. Hermes will have to make over half the journey on foot which for him should be about two days sadly I don't think we have that much time. There's an army up here that was made in a relatively short amount of time we can't let it spread. Up here the Olympians wouldn't be able to effectively fight them for another hundred years or so, maybe less considering the movement of the trojan survivors. By then we could have another giant (As in the war) war on our hands simply due to their numbers."

"Still what do we even know about this god. Most rogue gods don't like members of the Olympian Pantheon." Zoe reasoned.

Deciding she was right I scanned our temporary camp for the daughter of Borthomire, as soon as we left the valley I had us headed to mount Trier. I found her sitting next to Thalia who was trying comfort her with very little progress over the last few hours. Getting up from my seat I walked over to Lupa and crouched down in front of her.

"Lupa" I said softly "how are you feeling?" I asked already knowing the answer. No twelve years old was going to get over what she heard in a few hours.

"A little better." she said putting on a brave face.

"That's good, we're heading to meet a friend of your father Ignatius." I said.

At the name Lupa actually brightened up a bit. "We're going to see grandpa Ignatius."

"He's your grandfather?" I asked wondering why Borthomire would have left something like that out.

"No I just call him that because he smells like old people."She said.

Thalia and I chuckled at that which also happened to make Lupa smile. "Is there anything else you can tell me about him? Like any customs or greetings he would expect us to follow."

"Not much to be honest. He'll be a bit easier to deal with if you bow when you meet him, not like peasant meeting the king more like a meeting of equals. He'll also probably expect you to bow first."

Thalia growled "That would be implying he is of a higher social status than us. Talk about egotistical."

Lupa glared at Thalia, I winced, based on her nickname for him Lupa was probably close to the god "With Ignatius a little humility goes a long way he does it to help weed out the arrogant which he detests. And for your information Ignatius is a king." She growled.

Thalia for her part seemed shocked by our newest recruit's outburst "I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend you." She apologized

I asked Lupa if there was anything else we need to know then told the hunt we'd be leaving in five. As we resumed our march it took little less than an hour to reach the village in which Borthomire spoke of, or the ruins of it, yet something very important was missing "Where is mount Trier?" I asked myself.

We were in a fairly mountainous region but there wasn't even a large hill near this place. "I think it's this way." Lupa said sniffing the air.

"Look around moron." Clara of the fate triplets said "There's is no mountain."

Lupa ignored her and kept sniffing the air and walking to a pair of unusually large trees. Walking between them the young goddess seemed to almost dissolve into their shadow. "Lupa?" I called feeling a tinge of worry.

Lupa reappeared between the trees "I found it." she called.

The rest of the hunters and I followed her between the trees and found ourselves at the foot of a mountain. "How could we not see this?" Zoe said.

"It's a spell like the one around my father's valley." Lupa said. "It's in a pocket of space and you can only get in a certain way." I understood the theory from my talks with Athena but not much else, the rest of the hunters seemed totally lost.

Directly in front of us was a large cave easily 30 feet high "So he's in there?" Zoe asked.

"Yep." Lupa replied in a noticeably better mood, however she still lacked her usual enthusiasm.

I took a step towards the entrance and was blasted with heat "Who's there?" a voice called. The voice was kind of like a rushing river it sort of rumbled towards us.

"I'm Artemis of Olympus and these are my hunters I was sent by Borthomire." I replied "I'm looking for king Ignatius."

Zayden's eyes widened at the name and immediately dropped to his knees

"Borthomire you say, it's rare he sends someone my way." The now identified Ignatius said. Half a second later he exited the cave...in dragon form. He was almost 25 feet tall at the shoulder and his reddish gold scales had a faint glow about them much like Apollo's chariot. I quickly fought off my shock and gave a quick bow which most of my hunters imitated.

"Is this about the whereabouts of Feronia? I haven't seen her in several months." He said not acknowledging our show of respect or bowing in return.

'He's testing us' I realized 'he purposefully test our patience to see how we react.' "I apologize but that is not the reason we are here, if I may ask who is this Feronia?" I replied.

"She's his girlfriend." Lupa answered for him.

Ignatius looked towards the young huntress "Ah Lupa how good to see you again." He said in a cheerful tone. "When your father mentioned you had joined the hunters of Artemis I thought he was joking."

The two grinned at each other for a moment then Lupa bowed. The grin on Ignatius' face slip into…I don't know, it's really hard to tell with the dragon face. "Lupa have you forgotten your lessons?" He asked, it seemed to be a genuine question lacking any judgement in it.

"What did I miss?" She asked scratching the back of her head, the motion seemed so familiar it felt like part of my mind was screaming at me but I couldn't place where I'd seen it.

"I am the one who should bow first you mustn't forget your father's status." He replied.

"Forgive me if this is a dumb question but how is the wolf king that much better then the dragon king?" I asked guess on what Ignatius was the king of.

At this Ignatius let out a hearty laugh "It appears you don't know much about Borthomire, true he was first the wolf king but he is known across the world as the beast king. Imagine the strongest monster you've ever faced." He said. Immediately my thoughts drifted to Typhon but I'm certain many of the hunters thought of Drakons and giants "Borthomire is more powerful than any of them."

"Stronger than Typhon!" I exclaimed.

"Well no but Typhon isn't a beast god like Borthomire and myself. He is what you would call a regular god he merely chooses to take a monstrous form." The Dragon king explained. I let out a sigh of relief, Olympus wasn't ready for the war that would undoubtedly follow should another Typhon like threat appear.

"Perhaps further conversation would best be done inside considering the setting sun." Ignatius stated before walking into his cave. Lupa followed without hesitation which gave the rest of the hunters and myself a bit more confidence.

"I'll wait out here and stand guard." Zayden said "I don't deserve to see the king's home."

I thought about trying to convince him to come in but decided against it. Inside it was not like I expected. There was furniture made of stone sized for a normal person, plants of all kinds grew on seemingly random ledges, and open side tunnels made it so a non winged would being would easily able to transverse the cave. The only thing that didn't make sense was the open top of the mountain, however it would be easy for a god to fix any leaks.

In front of us Ignatius erupted into flames causing most of my hunters to yelp. The flames coalesced into the form of a man about 6' 3'' 2 with reddish hair. The dragon turned man bowed lightly to us "Please forgive my rudeness from earlier and please have a seat." he said gesturing to the many couches on the ground floor.

Once we had all seated Ignatius summoned one for himself, I got the feeling he stuck to tradition quite a bit, his poster was perfect and he emanated this feeling of nobility and strength. "Now what was it you wanted to speak to me about?"

-20 minutes later-

"I see" Ignatius said "this is a real problem that I should have noticed even if it's on the far edge of my hunting...grounds. Wait if these creatures are near that valley they should have passed by here at least a few times. They're deliberately avoiding this area which shouldn't be happening, my mountain is hidden from most creatures and the area in which I hunt it too large for all other predators to simply abandon. Whoever is controlling this is very intelligent in order to even approximate the location of my home."

"You should get some sleep, follow the tunnel to the next floor there are some rooms there you can use. I need to visit the divination room." He said pointing to a tunnel behind us.

"Divination?" Thalia asked.

"Mortals use it to see the future but god's can use it to communicate in real time, however it's not nearly as easy to use as you Iris message system that works for those loyal to Olympus." He said disappearing into another tunnel.

I took the hunters up to the rooms, got them settled, and gave a special warning to Phoebe not to cause trouble before turning in. I slept a little but anticipation for the next day and the fact we were in a stranger's home prevented me from getting much.

After a few hours I got up and checked on the hunters, all of whom were sound a sleep. I stepped out of the room and cast a spell that would warn me if anyone other than me entered. I walked to the ledge and looked around the cave. Down below I saw Ignatius still in his human form walking towards the cave entrance with a tray of food I assumed was for Zayden. On the walls was a fluorescent moss providing a soft light.

Above me I heard the sound of footsteps which stuck me as odd since I don't remember seeing any servants earlier, Ignatius did everything by hand and dragons tended to be loners with the exception of their family. A few seconds later a small boy that looked maybe 14 years old passed through an open tunnel on the next level. Curious I followed him silently thanking whoever decided that the tunnel should spiral up to the top.

When we were almost to the top when he turned into one of the off tunnels. I followed him into the room and promptly froze. Sitting in a lazily against the far wall was Percy. On his right was a blue haired man with red slitted eyes leaning o a red spear. On the left was a man with salt and pepper hair brown eyes looking into a scroll all three of them on pedestals. "Percy?" I whispered none of the three moved. In two steps I crossed the distance separating us and grabbed the hand resting on his knee. A sob escaped my lips, this was just a statue expertly painted to seem life like.

"Could you please not touch that?" on my left I saw the same boy from earlier walking towards me.

"Why are these here?" I asked, my voice much shakier than I wanted.

"Their part of a present for Borthomire's birthday. For as long as I've known the guy he's wanted a way to properly remember all heroes so Ignatius, Pisces and I came up with this." He said.

"Three statues?"

"No this is just the entrance." The boy said. "These three are widely considered to be the greatest heroes of all time Thuke, Perseus, and Cuchulain. They're often referred to as the three noble knights of virtue for both their feats and moral codes. Have you heard of them?"

"Perseus I have but I'm I can't say the same about the other two." I replied.

"Well Thuke was born when Babylon, though not known by that name, was still a small country and even Ra was a young god. He was raised by the yeti after his parents died till he was about nineteen or so when he was found by a hunter who brought him back to the capitol.

There he was taught how to read and write and although he missed his home was very happy at least until he met the king Gilgamesh. The king was for the most part could have been considered good because of the peace and wealth he had brought to the kingdom but most were quite angry due to his uncontrolled lust and even the passing of a law that allowed him to die as he pleased." The boy said seeming somewhat embarrassed by the comment. I merely shook my head in disgust for the king.

"Well Thuke found out and confronted the king and did not hold back in exactly how shameful and disgusting he thought Gilgamesh was. Naturally a fight broke out between the two. From what I know the battle must have been epic as Thuke a man raised in the jungle with strength the match Hercules fought Gilgamesh who was two thirds god himself.

In the end Thuke was defeated but the king was so impressed by his honesty and strength he made him his most trusted advisor. Thuke was granted a new name Enkidu not that he much cared for it, he prefered the name given to him by the yeti.

Years past and with Thuke acting as his conscience Gilgamesh became a great and well loved king. However the pride of Gilgamesh got the better of him and soon he wanted to become a god. Leaving the kingdom in the hand of his son Gilgamesh and Thuke set out to find a way to make that dream a reality.

After about three years and many battles Gilgamesh was presented with the fruit from Thalassa's garden by the goddess herself. On the way back to his kingdom his closest friend of then 15 years Thuke was bitten by a snake and would have died. Gilgamesh however couldn't take it and made a deal with Ananke his godhood and life for Thuke's. Thus Gilgamesh faded leaving his friend to protect his home. For the next 60 years no army no matter how strong could defeat Babylon in even a single battle. In the end the history book state that Thuke one day just disappeared into the forest never to be seen again.

Cuchulain was a son of Lugh the god of spearmanship. He lived on the streets most of his childhood, when he was 16 the watched dog of a small fishing town attacked him and he killed it with his bare hands. To pay back the town he offered to take it's place until it could replaced. He protected the for town five years he protected it fending off bandit, monsters, and even slaying a leviathan using a simple spear with a stone tip.

After words the town offer to make him their leader and many the young girl sought to catch his eye. Cuchulain turned them down saying he finally found his calling, to protect and preserve the home's and family's of others, and much like Thuke he disappeared into the forest never to be seen again."

We stood in silence for a time after he finished. I could see why both Thuke and Cuchulain were considered great but to me Percy would always be greater than all.

"Would you like to see the rest?" The boy asked.

"Sure." I replied. "By the way what is your name?"

"Anubis minor god of judgment." he said over his shoulder as he lead me down a hall. The hallway was some what dark as not all the torches were lit, even still I noticed the beautiful murals on the walls depicting all kinds of heroes on quests. As we exited the hallway I gasped, before me was what had to be the largest single chamber I'd ever seen. Near the front were a dozen or so tables, past them were hundreds if not thousands of shelves containing books and scrolls with more tables in between them and at the end of each table was a statue about as high as my knee.

The pillars holding up the ceiling had been carved to resemble heroes and heroine. The shelves were arranged in three rows and standing in front of each of them was a statue of either Thuke, Percy, or Cuchulain this time portrayed in a more serious manner. "Amazing." I whispered.

Next to me Anubis chuckled "Come on you haven't even seen the best part yet." he said leading me over to one of the smaller statues "Now ask for information about any Hero you can think of."

"Theseus." I said. The statue suddenly came to life and popped out of existence only to reappear a moment later placing a scroll on the table a resuming its original position.

Gently I picked up the scroll and read the name on the little tag attached to the side, 'Theseus' was neatly written on it. By now Anubis was grinning like a boy at a festival "See the statues can find any scroll in the library for you and put it away. Each scroll includes a biography about the hero and a drawing of what they look like, you also search hero from certain classes A.K.A. Saber, Lancer, Archer, Berserker, Caster, Rider, and Assassin."

"It's amazing." I admitted. "Whether or not Borthomire is happy I'm sure each of these heroes are thankful that they will be remembered."

"Just curious how well do you know Borthomire?" I asked.

"Better than most I'd say." he replied in the same cheerful tone as before. "Why do you ask?"

"In the last day it's been more than proven that I don't understand or even know much about him." I said.

"What is it you want to know?" Anubis asked obviously on guard.

"I'm not asking for weaknesses if that's what you're thinking I'd just like to know more about him, his past and his personality." I said.

Anubis relaxed a little at my words "Well for his past I can't give you many specifics as he doesn't really like to talk about it. Most of what I know come from what my boss Zeref has told me and what I've gleaned from training with him.

Borthomire was once a mortal, at age 20 or so he found himself traveling along the edges of Greece. Admittedly I don't know much before then but I think he was considered a commoner. His skill with a blade caused him to be hailed as a sword master, a title he keeps to this day, and eventually drew the attention of a beautiful nobel woman.

I couldn't tell you what she looked like but for Borthomire it was love at first sight and the two often spent much time together. Soon the kingdom became threatened and at her behest Borthomire race to protect it. He fought hundreds of warriors, monsters, gods, even Uranus and Gaea separately of course.

He laid victory after victory at the nobel woman's feet, achieved more than most men dream of and, in the end she scorned him. She cast him out and called him a monster. Years later he became the high god of heroes then some time after that he was given domain over the wild, waves, and destiny.

"With all this you'd think Borthomire would be completely happy but you'd be wrong. That woman broke him.. Personal I think even then the only being he gets to see who he truly is is his adoptive daughter Lupa. The rest see only a portion of who he is. Still people flock to him because he creates this sense of hope and compassion wherever he goes.

Woman especial chase after him for his reputation alone but he turns them all away because despite everything he still loves that mortal woman, every now and then I catch him looking up in the night sky, I think it's something they used to do together. Once he adopted Lupa he went on a few dates but ended it quickly. When Pisces pressed him for information as to why he said 'It wouldn't be fair to any woman if I married her while still in love with another'." As Anubis finished his story I felt a massive pain in my heart.

Was that what happened to Percy after I called him a monster. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes but I fought them back. Even when looking at their feats both Percy and Borthimire were so similar, then it hit me that's what my mind has been telling me since I'd met the werewolf god. Percy and Borthomire were practically mirror images of each other.

Part of me wondered if they were on in the same but that's impossible they couldn't be the same person, Uranus faded long before any of the Olympians were born it was a just a coincidence. Anubis said he had to leave and asked it I could find my way back, I nodded. As soon as he left I walked up to the giant statue of Percy and began to cry. I couldn't help it all this was bring back old memories and emotion I thought I'd finally gotten control of. So I cried and sob as his feet wishing he was really there with me.

AN: I'd just like to clarify something. At this point in time the Olympians with the exception of Aphrodite believe Uranus has faded. In truth he has not faded but has become a High god of the sky instead putting him much closer to Percy's level. I'm not sure exactly how close yet but I will say he is closer to Percy's strength than Typhon's.


	25. Faust

-Faust-

Artemis POV

"Is everybody ready?" I asked to the hunters gathered and was answered with a round of nods, on my left stood Ignatius back in his dragon form. Anubis had dropped by just before my hunters had awoken merely to let Ignatius know he would be reporting back to Borthomire.

He also gave the hunt an invitation to visit the museum in a few months when it was finished on the condition the we didn't let the rest of Olympus know. The young god was worried Hercules would try to break it if he found out he wasn't included in the 'Hall of Heroes'. Apparently Borthomire doesn't consider the son of Zeus to be a true hero just a man seeking glory so they left him out.

Turning around I looked out towards the castle that was our destination. Not that it really looked like much, at over a mile away even my enhanced vision granted to me by my domain I could barely see the outline. As we walked towards the only real entrance to the valley I glanced back at Lupa, she and Ignatius were my two real concerns.

Ignatius because I didn't really know him or how much ancient laws would restrict him. Lupa I was afraid she would clam up like when we first reached the valley, Ignatius did cast a spell that would reduce what she could understand, I just hoped her heart was strong enough.

"Ready young one?" Ignatius asked Zayden as we entered the final stretch.

Zayden erupted into flames much like Ignatius does when he transforms except it was accompanied by a sound akin to knuckles popping. "Ready when you are." He said once the change was done. He wasn't nearly as tall as the dragon king stand almost 8 feet at the shoulder and almost 27 feet long.

The two took off to complete their part of the plan. We picked up the pace heading toward the one opening in the valley. Ahead of us I heard our dragon friends roar followed by howls of pain. Seconds later we crossed into the valley surrounding us were ashes that were once living creatures.

Silently I thanked myself for having us all put stoppers in our noses so we wouldn't be smelling burnt flesh as we raced towards the castle before the creatures noticed us. Normally I'd like a good fight but with the enemy's numbers the way they are this was probably best. Besides if these animals were as hive like as they seemed. Inside that castle would be the queen and her mates. These creatures surrounding the castle were just the workers inside were the really powerful ones.

A few of the creatures glanced at us pausing in their rush to fight the dragons and were swiftly silenced by an arrow before they could warn the others. After what felt like an eternity we passed through the open doors to the castle, in the back of my mind I noticed something was off but I ignored it.

The main hall was deserted aside from a few blood stains and empty cages probably where these creatures came from I noticed one actually still had something in it. Taking a cautious step forward I created a small ball of light to illuminate the poorly lit room only to jump back as the now awake Chimera tried to slash me through the caged.

"What the Hades is that doing here?" I shouted.

"Are all those things out there the Chimera's kids." The Fate triplets asked.

"Well I guess you could say that." A voice rumbled in the dark. Slowly a it walked stumbled out of the shadows and I couldn't even figure out what it was. A snake like head and neck, dragon like wings, arms and feet shaped like a gorilla's with 9 inch claws at the end of each finger, a spiked tail not to mention the slimy scales covering it from head to toe and to top it off it stood upright an impressive 25 feet.

'Why can't just get some normal monsters lately.' I thought.

"What are you?" Thalia said to herself.

The walking nightmare started to chuckle "Oh a little of this a little of that." He laughed as he walked over to the Chimera's cage talons scraping across the floor. "Once I was known as Felix Faust the lord of this region, my people neither hated nor liked me and I kept to myself. I lived a relatively normal life that had been expected since the day I was born. I kept the town safe and had a moderate tax for that safety, the house you're in was built by my great-great-great grandfather when the valley was first settled.

With the land I ruled over being so small I had no way of expanding my territory to any real extent in my life time then one day I got my chance. A hunting hunting party returned raving about a giant just outside the town. Naturally as the lord of the land it was the job of me and my fifteen men to deal with the beast.

When the giant said it merely wanted to bargain I felt relieved I wouldn't have to fight. He offered me a book on alchemy and this beast pre caged in exchange for two sacred stones in my treasury. Apparently they had been gifts to my family from the previous Giant king and now the new one wanted them back.

Naturally I asked why he didn't just take them as I was sure even two more of his brethren would have been enough to overpower us. His reply was that they were enchanted, if he killed me they would never be able to retrieve them, I had to give them back through an 'honest and fair deal' and say 'I willingly give these sacred gems the goddess amber to Gration the giant." Faust said as he continued to circle us.

'Gration?!' I thought 'Just great now I don't just have to clean up this mess Olympus may have an even bigger one on the way.'

"Weeks past after I gained the book and in that time I became quite proficient in alchemy, raising homes in a single day, repairing fences in seconds. One night I glanced at my new pet and thought if I can take raw materials and build a house why can't take animals and build a chimera."

At that little revelation I had to stop myself from hurling at what he'd done. I flung a knife from my sleeve at his head hoping to kill him or at the very least blind him. In one swift motion Faust scratch the floor with one of his talons and a barrier erupted between us. "That wasn't very nice now was it?"

"How did you do that?" I asked while getting ready to break the dome like barrier around the hunt and myself.

"Alchemy is one of the most versatile arts in magic capable of creating anything as long as the requirements for the energy and materials needed are met. An energy barrier doesn't need any real materials other than a crest scratched onto the floor. And you're paying the energy cost." He laughed.

With a shock I glanced around the room, all across the room and walls there were dozens of crest scratched into them. Some suppression seals I recognized the rest were unfamiliar. Now that I was focusing on it I realized couldn't summon any power. "How the Hades did you learn all that from some lousy book?"

"I didn't learn it all from a book. Once I mastered molding the common forest beasts I moved on to the mythical ones perfecting my craft and in the process taking the information the information I need from their minds. The body you see before you and the seals on the walls are the final culmination of my research and experiments." He boosted.

"I've taken the best qualities from the most powerful creatures alive. Scales and eyes of a drakon; wings, claws, and magical resistance from a dragon; a yeti for it's shape and raw power; and last but not least a basilisk to not only add poison to my arsenal but make me immune to all others. Soon my army will be strong enough take over the entire region and-"

"Sorry to say but your army out side is currently being roasted." Thalia cut in.

Faust started laughing again "That was only a small portion of my army, the pawns I made from the forest creatures. The main forces of my army along with the queens have been safely secured away from the castle this little 'attack' of yours won't push my plans back more than a couple months. Even better the corpses outside will provide enough food to feed my army's for a couple months or so, they'll think we've been destroyed and weaken their defenses as the celebrate, making the fight easier."

I glanced behind me hoping to see a way out of this, it was all my fault I let myself become distracted and now we were trapped. The prison was expertly made and well balanced so an energy spike from even a demigod would simply be absorbed and make it stronger. How were we going to get out of this one?


	26. The Beast Kings Might

-The Beast Kings Might-

Zoe POV

Faust stared intently at Artemis "What are your domains little goddess?" He demanded.

"I am Artemis Goddess of the Moon, Hunt, Childbirth, and Maidens." She replied.

Faust let out a strange gurgling sound which I think was laughter "Tell you what I'll make you a deal. I'll let you and your hunters go as long as all of you swear to not to cause me any trouble and to leave your symbol of power behind."

"Do you honestly believe that I would accept such a deal?" Artemis asked.

"No but I hoped you would so I wouldn't have to resort more crude methods in order to receive your cooperation." Faust flicked his tail and suddenly a spike was protruding from Thalia's shoulder.

To her merit Thalia didn't scream, instead something more akin to a gasp escaped her lips. "Thalia!" Artemis screamed.

"I'll make this simple for you young goddess for every minute you refuse to hand over your symbol of power one of your hunters will die." He said.

Artemis slid her bow off her back "Artemis don't who know what he'd use that for!" I shouted. A few of our newest hunters gave me scared looks.

"So I should just let you all die?" She replied.

"Just look at what he's already done with his own power! We've already sent for help we just need to wait him out." I reasoned.

Before she could answer Ignatius broke through the ceiling 'huh completely forgot he was here.'

"Ah Ignatius I was hoping you'd come." Faust said.

"And now you'll live to regret it." the dragon king replied.

A torrent of flame erupted from the maw of Ignatius engulfing Faust completely "Go dragon dude." Thalia weezed.

The flames died and there stood Faust completely unfazed in fact he seemed to be grinning. "H-how?" I breathed a statement that seemed to be reflected on everyone's face.

"Bad luck you overgrown lizard. The slime on my skin makes fire a poor choice to fight me with and as I am part dragon a little heat doesn't mean much." Faust said cooly.

Ignatius shook off his shock "Fine there are other ways to fight." he declared. Another tongue of flame flew from the Dragon king's maw this time smaller and directed more at Faust's head, instinctively the abomination ducked shielding his eyes.

During the brief distraction Ignatius swung his tail sweeping Faust's legs out from under him. Instead of falling Faust's body arched itself almost like a snake's keeping his arms and head upright. Before Ignatius even completely turned back around Faust flapped his wings launching him a the dragon king's exposed side.

Claws and teeth raked scale and even cutting through some of the dragon kings hide. Ignatius threw Faust off and unleashed another torrent of flames. Despite his already proven immunity to fire Faust covered his face. 'Guess you can't magically alter your own instincts.' Then Ignatius dropped to the floor.

Faust smirked as the flame cleared "Dragon can be such difficult creatures to kill with their tough scales and hide, not to mention magical resistance. In fact they only have two know weaknesses, the petals of an Elloween flower and the venom of a basilisk. You see I knew I would have to face you at some point Dragon king so I captured a basilisk to meld with." He gloated. "It won't kill you but it will keep your paralyzed for the next day or so."

Faust took three steps towards the now immobile Ignatius and stepped brutally on his right paw "Now which one was it?" he asked himself pulling a large set of tongs from the cloth around his waist. Griping Ignatius leftmost claw on his right paw with the tongs Faust ripped it out. Ignatius roared in pain and Artemis had to hold Lupa back from charging the barrier not that it would have mattered.

"Nope not the right one." Faust said tossing the bone away and grabbing the next one and tearing it out just as brutally.

"Stop it!" Lupa screamed not that Faust even paying attention as he inspected the new bone. It was sickening to watch Ignatius tortured but there was nothing we could do. Lupa had always been apprehensive in killing even savage monsters which wasn't surprising given what she was raised by but to see someone she cared for treated like this must have been tearing her up inside.

Faust discarded the second claw and reached for a third "Stop it" Lupa screamed fighting against Artemis who was holding her as tightly as she could pinning her arms to her waist, then Lupa started to glow. It was hard to tell but it was like part of her skin and face lit up bright blue, there seemed to be a pattern of some sort but her hair and clothes obstructed my view. "I SAID STOP IT!" She screamed again this time emitting golden light at well from her body.

Water seemed to condense from the air and rise up from cracks in the floor blasting Faust across the room and into the far wall pinning him to it with such force he couldn't even move and cracks began to web out from his location. 'That's it drown him.' I thought but as quickly as it had begun it ended. The light that Lupa emitted faded and the water dropped to the floor, even she hung limp in Artemis arms.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Lupa connected to at least one or more her domains." Artemis explained. "It's very hard to do the first time and usually is accompanied by a brief but massive wave of energy. She must have used all of it to temporarily overcome this barrier. She's completely exhausted now."

"What an annoying brat." Faust spat rising to his feet. "I should probably kill her right now but I've got what I was looking for." He held up a third claw that he must have grabbed before Lupa hit him. He placed it in his hand and it grew into a large golden spear. "The spear of Helios, it may no longer contain the power of the sun but it still was the symbol of power for a celestial god."

"It…will…never… work… for….you." Ignatius wheezed from where he lay on the floor.

"I don't need it to work for me." Faust said. "I just need to have it with me to enter into the garden of Hemera, there I will pick and eat the sacred fruit and become a god!" He laughed "I found the location a year ago. But I could never get in without a celestial gods symbol of power."

My eyes widened at his words, if he became a god than the world was endanger. Sure he's a problem now but once he died it would be over. If he became a god, even if he was defeated and imprisoned at some point, the world would be forever scarred because of it.

Faust's gloating abruptly ended when the large oak doors to his castle shattered and a fish like bird the size of a small house crashed to the floor. "Who Dares?" Faust bellowed anger clear on his face.

"I believe I do." Borthomire said almost jokingly as he strided into the room.

At the sight Ignatius tried to stand but couldn't "My…king." He wheezed.

"Rest old friend you've done well." The beast king said putting a hand on the dragon king's neck.

"So you're the mighty beast king that my test subjects cried out for." Faust said "I must say I am rather unimpressed."

"Well good thing I really don't care what you think." Borthomire replied giving Faust his undivided attention.

The two began circling each other slowly "If you don't mind there is something I'd like to ask you." Faust said. "I was curious how some little werewolf became the beast king, especially you can only use your physical abilities when fighting for or defending your throne."

'You know he kind of has a point' I thought, if those are the rules than the wolf king would be at sizable disadvantage most of the time.

"In fact after I learned of your existence I did as much research as I could into and there was plenty to find up until 400 years ago before that it's almost as if you didn't exist before then." Faust inquired.

"I like to keep a low profile." Borthomire said nonchalantly "I never wanted to be famous or even king for that matter but with Pan's death someone had to step up and take control before nature fell into anarchy."

Faust snorted "Doubtful, the only reason someone from such a weak species could ever rise to become the king of beasts is if the other beast kings and queen let you. Pan groomed you to take over his position than convinced the rest to let you stay to keep the other weaklings in line. After all ants are easy to control if they believe their queen is giving the orders."

Faust made a lot of good points but at the same time I don't think a dragon like Zayden would show such respect to a false king. Borthomire smiled at the taunt "If that what you think why don't you prove it."

"I intend to." Faust said before charging at Borthomire brandishing his stolen spear. Without being accepted by the weapon the spear was literally just a spear, it had no real magical properties other than being nearly unbreakable. But that didn't mean it couldn't kill you.

Borthomire easily sidestepped the spear and taking three leisurely steps drew one of his blades, a cold blue one, and left a deep gash on the side of Faust's hind leg. Faust roared and flicked his tail sending dozens of spikes at the beast king. Borthomire calmly slide to the right dodging all of the spikes save three which he slashed out of the air with his blade.

'Unbelievable' I thought 'When Ignatius and that thing fought, brief as it was, they seemed to be even in skill level yet Borthomire doesn't even look like he's trying.'

"Whoa he making this look easy." Thalia said.

Faust swung his spear which Borthomire blocked with his blade firmly gripped in both hands. Borthomire was practically thrown across the room by the force of Faust's blow but he landed safely on his feet.

Borthomire dashed at Faust ducking the golden spear and lopping off two of Faust's fingers in the process. Faust roared and slashed at the beast king who again dodged soundly before scoring another hit. Something flashed through Faust's eyes and he flicked his tail again but this time the spikes flew at us. I glanced at the hunters, we wouldn't all be able to dodge, there were t0o many spikes and not enough room to move.

My eyes met Borthomire's they looked so familiar and they burned with intense determination. Everything seemed to slow down as the beast king ran towards us, water rose from the ground but it was clear it would make it. Suddenly the right third dropped and the rest of the water rose faster Borthomire swiped the closest spikes out of the air and continued on however one had been delayed and it was coming right for me. Borthomire didn't have time to turn back, if he did Lupa and Artemis were lost.

He threw his blade knocking the spike off course and flung himself in front of Artemis and Lupa. Several spikes struck the beast king in the back arms and legs. For a moment Borthomire was as still as a statue then he collapsed face first to the floor. Faust let out a snort "So the mighty beast king has a weakness after all."

"That's...not a...weakness...you...fool...his...heart...is his...greatest...strength." Ignatius breathed.

"It doesn't matter" Faust said raising his spear over Borthomire "when the sun rises tomorrow there will be a new beast king."

Faust attempted to plunge the spear into Borthomire only to have it caught by the same half dead man. One second he was face down the next he's on his knees hold the spear just below the tip. "How?" Faust said in disbelief "I killed you. You should be dead!"

"You didn't...kill him...you just...pissed him off." Ignatius laughed.

Borthomire drew his second blade and cut one of Faust's hands clean off. Faust growled and spun sweeping with his tail like Ignatius did only to have it lopped off in a single stroke, which was a real feat seeing as the tail was thicker than the blade was long.

"Enough of that." Borthomire stated his voice devoid of any amusement. Faust didn't even have time to register the pain before the beast king literally ripped off one of Faust's feet with his bare hand. Faust struggled to stand again using the golden spear as a crutch only to have his other hand removed by Borthomire's blade.

"Game over." Borthomire said driving his blade through Faust's skull. Faust's body disintegrated...mostly till all that was left a faint purple glow. "Zeref!" the beast king bellowed.

'Who the heck is Zeref' I thought.

Shadows coalesced from the corners of the room into a man with unnaturally pale skin, brown hair, and red eyes. "You called my king." Zeref said..

"Thank you for coming." I need you to send Anubis and his servants to search this castle for anything and everything and a medic for Ignatius. Lastly I want you to take that man's soul and toss it in the river Lethe I don't want a single shred of his memory to remain before we send him for rebirth."

"As you wish my king." Zeref said. He grabbed the purple light which then took the form of a man and disappeared into the shadows.

Borthomire recalled his swords to him as he walked over to us and with a burst of energy destroyed Faust's trap. "Is everyone alright?" He asked.

"A little worse for ware but we'll live." Artemis replied before noticing his focus on Lupa "She'll be okay she connected to one of her domains."

At that Borthomire seemed to light up "That's my gi…". The beast king fell face first onto the floor and didn't get up.

AN: Okay so first up I'm so sorry for the wait school and work have been eating up all my time.

Second as some of you were confused as to the difference between a normal god and a beast god I'll try to clear it up. When a god runs out of energy he or she returns to their most natural form, basically whatever they were before they became a god. So Borthomire's natural form would be a werewolf, Artemis would be human and so on. Typhon is a normal god as his natural form is human, his appearance is his own choice.

Please review


	27. Chapter 27

-Family Ties-

Artemis POV

I smiled as I watched the father and daughter embracing. It was nice to see something like that after the last few day's. Anubis had shown up a hour ago with a number of immortal shape shifters and I almost had another fight break out right then and there. To be fair though I understand how it looked how it looked to them as I had the dragon and beast kings heavily wounded and a princess surrounded by hunters. Thankfully Ignatius was still conscious and able to smooth things over.

Lupa woke up a few minutes later and promptly hugged Anubis so tightly I swear his ribs cracked, apparently they're best friends. It was also very amusing to watch the poor medic caught up in a argument between Borthomire and Ignatius over who should be treated first. They both wanted the other taken care of and the medic was somewhere between starstruck and terrified, so I sat back and enjoyed the show.

"Hey shouldn't we be going after the rest of Faust's army?" Clara of the fates triplets asked. It was a good question without Faust to keep them in check those creature are bound to start terrorizing the area.

"How would we do that when we have no idea where they are?" Zoe replied.

"I might be able to help you there." Borthomire said adjusting his position on the ground, even wounded he never took off that cloak and I couldn't see his face which was honestly driving me crazy.

Once the beast king settled into his new position he continued "I would've been here about a day earlier but I ran into about 14 underground hideaways packed with creatures similar to Faust's creations. The few beings that still had their minds explained what happened and asked that end their suffering. The locations are empty now but we might be able to use them to find the rest if there are any I missed."

For a moment everyone was silent then Thalia spoke up "So let me get this straight you took out 14 fortresses which according to Faust was filled with thousands of his warriors each." She said echoing my own thoughts.

"No" Borthomire said flatly "Faust must have exaggerated because these locations were more like cleverly hidden caves and valleys than fortresses and only held 200 to 250 at the most. Beside they had no real sense of strategy they just tried to overwhelm me with their numbers."

Okay so it wasn't as impressive as I though but still over 14 locations that adds up to nearly 3000 soldiers at least. "Still we should make sure they're all taken care of?" Thalia asked.

"Yes we will but unless Faust has a map of each location hidden away somewhere in his castle there is not much can be done." Borthomire said. "Of course we'll search all the nearby areas and territories but if nothing turns up we'll just have to wait and see."

Thalia nodded apparently satisfied and Borthomire turned his attention to Lupa "So I hear you connected to your first domain." He said with a wide Percy like grin that made my chest ache.

Lupa pulled her legs in close hiding part of her face "Yes." She said quietly.

Borthomire laughed heartily and put a hand on her shoulder "No need to be shy Lu in fact we should be celebrating, but first what's your domain?" he said with a mischievous smile.

Catching his game I started to smile, this joke was order than the lord of time himself. "I don't know what my domain is." Lupa said softly.

"You don't?" Borthomire asked in a worried tone.

"I-Is that bad?" Lupa asked.

"Apollo would say it's a really bad omen." I added trying to look as concerned as possible.

Lupa glanced up at me than her father and back to me becoming more panicked by the second. Borthomire let out a snicker which turned into full blown laughter. "Dang it I couldn't hold it any more."

Without even realizing it I started laughing as well "What's so funny?" Lupa demanded.

"Lu no one remembers their first time connecting to any of their domains." the beast king laughed.

"You jerk!" Lupa exclaimed launching herself at her father. After a brief tussle Borthomire had his daughter pinned to his chest, both of which were laughing. It was a rather cute moment that brought a sense of both warmth and longing to my heart. In the back of my mind something said 'that could've been Percy with your daughter'.

Without warning Borthomire threw his daughter away from him and rolled to the side just as the rock he was leaning on exploded. Borthomire landed in a crouch with his hand on the blade strapped to his right hip.

Naturally me and my hunters had our bows drawn in seconds and waited as the dust settled to reveal.."Hermes?" I said in disbelief, honestly I forgot I even called him.

"Did I get him?" The god of travelers asked.

"Thankfully not as he's an ally." I said lowering my bow as did my hunters. Knowing we weren't in danger I allowed myself to relax and I couldn't help but notice everyone's placement. Borthomire was directly in front of me almost protectively.

Lupa was being protected to by Zoe and Thalia, in fact he would have had to throw Lupa at an odd angle to have her reach them. He told Lupa stories about them so he obviously knows they are my strongest hunters, they would be ideal to protect her. So if he was worried about her safety why is he in front of me?

"Hermes I told you to wait!" Another voice shouted. I turned to see a very angry Aphrodite marching towards us in fashionable blue pants and pink coat...I'd never wear it.

"But he's a werewolf." Hermes said "A filthy werewolf, a monster!"

A few of my younger hunters who were Lupa's friends looked ready to scream then Lupa did something thing no one saw coming. The young goddess who was still recovering from being thrown and apparently had missed what Hermes just said looked up and the love goddess and screamed "Auntie Aphy!" as she seemingly flew past the son of Zeus and into Aphrodite's open arms.

"Lu, I didn't know you were in the hunt." the love goddess said embracing Lupa "Oh I'm gonna kill that brother of mine for not telling me, if I had know I would have come to visit sooner."

A stunned silence ensued for a moment before Hermes regained his voice. "You have a brother?"

"Yes I have a Brother." Aphrodite snapped "In fact you've already met him. I believe you called him 'A filthy Werewolf'."

"Racist." Lupa added with a glare.

Borthomire POV

The moment Aphrodite called me her brother I had to bite back a groan. This was going to be a massive headache for me I just knew it. Lupa may view her as family but Aphrodite was just a good friend to me, maybe a close friend, but not a sister. I'll have to go with it though or the both of them will kill me for arguing.

When the hunters and god's present glanced my way I gave a small wave and leaned against the nearest sizable rock.

AN: Hey guys School's out and I am back ready to get back to writing. Expect more chapters to come and please let me know what you think of the story so far. Also I always love suggestions from my readers I may not use them all but I promise to honestly consider them.

Please Review


	28. Pride and Prejudice

-Pride and Prejudiced-

Artemis POV

I couldn't speak for what felt like an eternity after Aphrodite declared Borthomire her brother. "Lupa why don't you go help Anubis in searching the castle, you haven't seen him in a while so you should use this opportunity to catch up." The love goddess said breaking the silence.

"Um okay." Lupa said setting off towards the fortress.

Once my young huntress had gotten a fair distance away Hermes spoke up "I'm sorry but how the Hades do you have a younger brother?" He bellowed.

"Well you see when a god and a goddess really love each other…" Aphrodite began.

"That's not what I meant." Hermes shouted "He is a werewolf just like Lycon how can he even be a god let alone your brother."

"Children of primordials often have diverse and unique features." Borthomire said tiredly from where he sat. "Besides beast gods like me are about as common human based gods like yourselves. And lastly I'd appreciate it if you didn't compare me to Lycon he's a criminal and a traitor to his kind.

"Before Olympus created him Humans respected Werewolves and other shifter species as equals but because you turned him into a werewolf humanity has started hunting us like vermin. " The beast king said in a clipped tone making it clear he held Hermes responsible.

"You have a problem Furball." Hermes spat.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Aphrodite sang. "My little brother may not like fighting all that much but he can still tear you apart."

"I'd like to see him try." Hermes spat.

Hermes' one sided glaring match was interrupted when Lupa came back with a few shifters probably as guards."Dad, Dad you gotta comes see this."

"Well that was quick." The beast king muttered pushing himself to his feet. "What did you find?"

"We found a study and what we think is his notes on how he created those things." Lupa said handing him a large leather wrapped book with was looked like norse runes etched into it. "There was also a door but it's covered in all kinds a seals and spell crests. Anubis is still trying to get in and the rest of the place is completely empty. There's not even any furniture in any of the rooms."

"You mean those creatures you called me about were made by someone?" Hermes asked.

"Yes." I replied. "A man named Faust created them by fusing living creatures together with magic. And there's more Gration was involved."

Hermes expression morphed from shock to anger then he walked over Borthomire and quite calmly said "Give me the book."

The beast king simply over his shoulder and said "No I don't think I will."

"What?" Hermes asked clearly not expecting to be turned down.

"Don't take it the wrong way but I've never met you before and I don't feel comfortable leaving something so dangerous in your hands."

"And I don't trust you with that book either so on behalf of Olympus I will be taking that book with me to be studied and used as the Council sees fit."

Overhearing the conversation Aphrodite ran over "Hey hey Hermes you do want to go down that path."

"You have no jurisdiction here kid so I suggest you stand down."

"No you stand down Olympus is the only Pantheon currently in existence and as such a rogue God much less a monster like yourself does not get a say in these matters." Hermes said causing Aphrodite to visibly flinch.

Borthomire Growled lightly and stepped so that he was fully facing the messenger God. if you wanted then come and claim it. he replied.

Despite the fact that both of his opponents blades we're still sheathed Hermes summoned his caduceus and morphed it into a sword just before he lunged at his opponent. The beast king sidestepped Hermes and tripped him as he went by. Hermes pulled himself up from the ground his face flush with rage and embarrassment and lunged at the werewolf once again this time taking care of his footing and slashing far more wildly.

I moved from where I was sitting to try and stop the fight but the love goddess wave me back saying "This is something that they need to sort out and a lesson that Hermes needs to learn." so I waited and watch the fight.

After a few minutes it became apparent that despite Hermes being a great deal faster than his opponent Borthomire was able to anticipate and counter his every move. It reminded me of watching retired soldiers training new members of the military, the young warriors despite being physically more capable were out matched time and time again by the skill and experience that came with age.

The situation was made even somewhat hilarious due to the fact that the beast king was also at his physical peak making the entire fight almost comical as he would slap Hermes blade aside and knock him to the ground time and time again with very little effort especially once you consider that he was also still injured from this fight just a few hours earlier, that was the gap in skill between the two.

Finally after a particularly wild and outright foolish attempt to strike the beast kings left side Hermes was thrown to the ground and Borthomire waved his hand almost like a sword creating the ground along Hermes left side to explode as an invisible force struck leaving the messenger god scared and shaken but unharmed. The message was clear Hermes was far out of his League, the beast king didn't say a word but merely flashed away. "And that kids is why he is the beast king." Aphrodite added simply to rub it in.

Hermes stood up proving that the only thing of his seriously injured was his pride and stormed away.

Hermes POV

'Who does that furball think he is.' Hermes mentally ranted. 'And why was Artemis protecting he's a monster, we as gods are supposed to kill monsters. And why did't she try to stop him from killing me like she did for him.' Deep within Hermes a spark of Jealousy began to burn.

(AN: Hey guys sorry for the long delay the muse just hasn't been with me lately. I'm proud to announce that this chapter marks the end of phase 2 in my story just as the beast is born marked the end of phase 1. I ended spending a lot more time the aftermath of the Faust issue then I planned. Now moving forward the next chapter will be a little slow but it's going to set the stage for most of phase 3.)


End file.
